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OF  CALIFORNIA 
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THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 


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By  the  Same  Author 

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THE 

INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 
AND   OTHER   ESSAYS 

POLITICAL,  SOCIAL,  AND  LITERARY 


BY 

FRANCIS  GRIERSON 


NEW  YORK— JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 
LONDON— JOHN  LANE— THE  BODLEY  HEAD 
TORONTO  — BELL    &    COCKBURN       MCMXIII 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
John  Lane  Company 


THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS,   CAMBRIDGE,   U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 

The  Invincible  Alliance ii 

The  Prophet  Without  Honour  ....  31 

The  New  Preacher 42 

Republic  or  Empire? 60 

The  Parliamentary  Arena 100 

The  Soul's  New  Refuge no 

Impressions  of  Italy 121 

Materialism  and  Crime 132 

Hampton  Court  and  Versailles     ...  142 

George  Bernard  Shaw 160 

The  Agnostic  Agony 167 

The  Psychology  of  Dress 180 

Benjamin  Disraeli 186 

Savonarola 193 

France  Old  and  New 200 

The  New  Era 213 


THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 


F[  the  progress  of  a  people  there  are  two  ele- 
ments which  constitute  what  may  be  called 
their  destiny  —  material  force  and  spiritual 
power.  Experienced  politicians  frequently  fore- 
see commercial  events  with  striking  accuracy, 
because  they  reason  from  a  visible  cause  to  a 
direct  and  logical  result;  but  the  material  eye, 
no  matter  how  keen,  fails  to  penetrate  the  world 
of  spiritual  will,  where  the  elements  at  work  are 
invisible  and  silent,  and  out  of  which  grave  events 
often  occur  without  any  warning  whatever.  It 
is  this  that  lends  a  sort  of  blind  meaning  to  the 
word  Fate. 

Physical  needs  precede  intellectual  necessity, 
and  from  the  physical  arise  the  humane,  the  philo- 
sophic, and  the  intuitive;  and  just  as  soon  as  a 
nation  ceases  to  display  a  sustained  and  sober 
energy  it  begins  to  lose  on  the  side  of  the  spiritual 
aspirations  of  Will  and  Intellect.  India  attained 
intellectual  power  after  she  had  risen  to  a  certain 
plane  of  material  development.    She  rose  to  phUo- 


12    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

sophic  heights,  but  in  the  ascent  she  forgot  the 
needs  of  the  material.  India  was  caught  in  a 
metaphysical  slumber,  and  was  conquered;  and 
China,  after  producing  her  philosophers  and 
law-makers,  lapsed  into  a  long  and  peaceful 
lethargy. 

"Place  your  ear  to  the  bosom  of  the  earth  and 
you  will  feel  the  living  throb  of  the  universe," 
says  the  Celtic  seer,  Lamennais.  And  similarly, 
if  you  sit  perfectly  still  in  a  room  in  some  isolated 
palace,  you  will  feel  the  present  gradually  fading 
into  oblivion,  and  out  of  the  strange  silence  vi- 
sions of  coming  events  will  mingle  in  a  sort  of 
whispering  gallery  of  portents  and  impressions, 
until  it  seems  possible  to  sense  the  destiny  of 
empires. 

I  have  not  forgotten  the  impressions  created 
by  my  sojourn  at  Gatschina.  The  old  Marshal 
of  the  Palace,  Prince  Bariatinsky,  one  of  the 
heroes  of  Sevastopol,  escorted  me  through  the 
immense  structure.  Arriving  at  a  small  iron  bed 
in  one  of  the  most  interesting  rooms  he  crossed 
himself,  bent  his  knee  to  the  floor,  and  remarked : 
"This  is  the  bed  of  my  late  beloved  master, 
Nicolas  I."  I  stopped,  and  while  looking  with 
surprise  at  the  hard,  uncomfortable-looking 
couch,  the  Prince  coolly  remarked:  "He  had  his 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    13 

mind  fixed  on  Constantinople."  My  escort  gave 
a  slight  shrug  of  the  shoulders,  as  much  as  to 
say  he  failed,  and  he  died  of  a  broken  heart;  and 
the  Prince  added  as  we  walked  away:  "But 
we  shall  have  Persia,  and  we  have  an  eye  on 
Manchuria." 

My  escort  led  the  way  upstairs  to  the  Chinese 
museum.  When  we  arrived  among  the  splendid 
objects  which  filled  a  great  gallery,  he  said  again, 
with  a  wave  of  the  hand:  "There  is  something 
worth  fighting  for,"  meaning  the  Chinese  Empire. 
Then  I  began  to  realise  what  the  Eastern  question 
meant  for  the  people  of  Russia.  But  when  we 
entered  the  throne  room  of  Catherine  the  Great, 
with  its  maze  of  mellow  light,  its  wonderful  calm, 
and  its  fascinating  simplicity,  all  this,  united  to 
something  singularly  Oriental,  made  me  realise 
how  unnatural  Russian  dominion  is  in  Western 
Europe,  and  how  much  in  harmony  it  is  with 
Eastern  thought  and  religion. 

There  will  be  no  Russian  question  in  Western 
Europe,  but  the  time  will  come  when  Germany 
will  possess  the  whole  of  North-western  Russia, 
and  Constantinople  will  belong  to  Austro-Ger- 
mania.  And  here  we  have  the  question  of  the 
yellow  races  pressing  home  closer  and  closer.  In 
Russia  there  is  a  Far  Eastern  question,  which 


14    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

means  China  and  Japan;  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand  there  is  the  same  question,  but  more  im- 
perative; while  on  the  Pacific  Coast  of  America, 
from  Mexico  to  British  Columbia,  the  question 
has  even  now  shaped  itself  into  one  of  imminent 
peril.  The  whole  thing  seems  so  remote  from  the 
England  we  are  living  in  that  to  fear  trouble  from 
that  source  seems  like  an  idle  dream.  And  yet 
that  is  where  future  trouble  will  be  foimd.  Our 
very  existence  is  bound  up  in  this  question  of 
China  and  Japan  because  of  Australia  directly  and 
the  United  States  indirectly. 

It  was  in  San  Francisco  in  1875  that  I  first  had 
an  opportunity  of  studying  the  Chinese  character. 
There  was  at  the  time  a  population  of  30,000 
Chinese,  with  two  large  theatres  of  their  own; 
but  not  till  I  crossed  the  Pacific  on  the  City  of 
Sydney  in  1877  from  California  to  Australia  did 
I  get  a  real  vision  of  a  Chinese  horde  on  the  move 
from  one  part  of  the  world  to  another. 

The  steamer  was  the  largest  plying  between  the 
ports  of  San  Francisco  and  Sydney,  carrying  hun- 
dreds of  Chinese  en  route  for  Honolulu.  A  huge 
hole  in  the  middle  of  the  steamer  permitted  one 
to  contemplate  the  wonderful  scene.  The  weather 
was  very  warm,  and  down  below,  so  far  that  it 
looked  like  another  world,  hundreds  of  limp  and 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    15 

listless  Chinese  fanned  their  feverish  faces  with 
great  coloured  fans,  and  from  the  bunks,  which 
rose  tier  upon  tier,  hung  the  legs  and  arms  of  the 
half -stifled  horde  as  in  a  picture  out  of  Dante's 
Inferno.  Most  of  them  were  reclining,  while  some 
sat  cross-legged  on  the  floor. 

As  I  stood  there,  faint  waves  of  weird  Chinese 
music  were  wafted  up  with  whiffs  of  sandalwood, 
odours  that  became  lost  in  the  stronger  scent  of 
tobacco  smoke  on  deck.  Then,  with  the  setting 
sun,  came  a  scene  of  transcendent  magic.  A 
voice  rose  from  somewhere  below,  it  may  have 
been  a  chant  of  jubflant  prophecy  or  it  may  have 
been  a  song  of  encouragement  and  hope,  accom- 
panied by  Chinese  fiddles,  the  rasping  tones  sub- 
dued and  modified  to  a  sort  of  uncanny  wail  by 
the  partitions  separating  the  invisible  musicians 
from  the  deck;  and  as  the  song  continued  the 
colours  in  the  sky  slowly  spread  out  into  thou- 
sands of  small  cloudlets,  filling  the  western  heavens 
with  a  blaze  of  molten  gold,  the  sun  sank  below 
the  waters,  the  moon  rose  in  the  east,  the  ship 
glided  on,  the  voice  came  and  went,  as  if  in  keep- 
ing with  the  long,  monotonous  roll  of  the  ocean, 
and  it  seemed  as  if  I  were  sailing  the  Pacific  with 
a  band  of  Argonauts  from  the  Celestial  Empire  in 
search  of  a  new  Golden  Fleece  in  the  vast  imtram- 


i6    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

melled  spaces  of  worlds  yet  to  be  conquered.  I 
had  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  Chinese  avantguards. 
I  had  seen  the  first  off -shoots  of  a  people  endowed 
with  a  patience  and  endurance  unknown  to  any 
of  the  nations  of  the  West. 

No  one  who  sits  at  home  can  possibly  reaUse 
what  the  great  world-movements  are.  They 
must  be  seen,  heard,  and  sensed.  To  luiderstand 
them  we  have  to  enter  into  their  rhythmic  action. 
It  is  not  enough  to  read  about  them.  All 
primitive  national  movements  are  symbolical. 
They  symbolise  a  greater  and  a  vaster  future^ 
and  every  act  has  a  special  significance. 

Sir  Robert  Hart  was  the  greatest  authority  on 
China.  "The  words ' imperil  the  world's  future,' " 
he  says,  "may  provoke  a  laugh,  but  let  the  words 
stand.  Twenty  million  or  more  of  Boxers,  armed, 
drilled,  and  disciplined,  animated  by  patriotic 
motives,  will  take  back  from  foreigners  everything 
foreigners  have  taken  from  China,  and  will  pay 
off  old  grudges  with  interest." 

The  Chinese  are  now,  like  the  Japanese,  fully 
aware  of  their  importance.  A  Japanese  Ambassa- 
dor has  recently  declared  that  a  triple  Alliance 
composed  of  England,  the  United  States,  and 
Japan  could  dominate  the  world.  It  is  easy  to  see 
that  in  the  near  future  new  and  startling  alliances 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    17 

will  be  formed,  but  any  combination  that  seeks  to 
separate  England  and  America  will  be  directed 
not  only  against  the  peace  of  the  nations  but 
against  Anglo-Saxon  civilisation  in  the  West,  and 
a  combination  that  would  debar  either  of  the 
great  English-speaking  countries  would  speedily 
inaugurate  a  series  of  wars  and  revolutions  that 
would  devastate  the  whole  civilised  world. 


II 

Two  things  will  force  England  and  America  into 
a  coalition  of  material  aims  and  interests  —  the 
menace  of  famine  on  one  hand  and  the  menace  of 
the  yellow  races  on  the  other.  America  can  never 
hope  to  grapple  with  the  yellow  peril  single- 
handed,  England  can  never  hope  to  avoid  star- 
vation without  a  binding  political  agreement  with 
the  great  RepubHc.  All  other  dangers  seem  in- 
significant compared  with  the  laissez  faire  policy 
now  in  vogue  in  regard  to  this  all-important 
question. 

Yet  there  has  never  been  a  political  agreement 
based  on  material  interests  alone  which  has  stood 
the  test  of  a  great  crisis.  A  commercial  entente 
without  a  natural  attraction  means  nothing  in 
the  hour  of  political  and  social  strain.     France 


i8    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

to-day  would  as  soon  join  forces  with  Germany  as 
bind  her  forces  to  any  compact  with  Anglo-Saxon 
interests  if  the  French  people  thought  they  were 
losing  more,  even  a  little  more,  than  they  were 
gaining. 

Has  any  diplomat  in  this  country  figured  to 
himself  the  position  of  the  King  were  England 
bound  to  the  precepts  of  a  revolutionary  Gov- 
ernment in  France?  France  can  no  more  escape 
being  governed  by  militant  rulers  in  the  near  fu- 
ture than  she  can  help  being  sceptical,  logical, 
ironical,  and  Gallic.  All  political  agreements  with 
European  nations  are  but  props  and  crutches. 
Italy  and  Spain  will  follow  the  example  of  France 
as  certainly  as  the  sun  will  rise  to-morrow,  and 
even  at  this  moment  Rome  is  governed  by  a 
Mayor  more  militant  than  the  most  revolution- 
ary Parisian. 

The  time  is  gone  when  the  great  nations  will 
go  to  war  like  schoolboys  in  a  passion.  There 
will  be  no  passion  in  Germany's  next  war.  It 
will  be  a  war  of  cool  calculation.  Englishmen 
who  have  not  lived  in  Berlin  do  not  understand 
the  Prussian.  Bismarck  divorced  the  Prussian 
mind  from  sentimentality.  The  next  war  will 
be  no  dress  parade  show,  but  a  simple  afifair  of 
calculated  famine.    The  manoeuvres  will  be  di- 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    19 

reeled  not  against  the  head  and  the  heart,  but 
against  the  stomach. 

Just  after  the  Franco-Prussian  war  some  French 
friends  of  mine  described  the  conduct  of  the  vic- 
torious Germans  during  the  invasion.  "The 
Prussians,"  said  my  friends,  "fought  with  the 
coolness  of  human  machines  which  nothing  could 
stop.  The  French  soldiers  fought  with  a  passion 
that  soon  cooled,  the  Germans  with  a  cold- 
blooded will  that  was  crushing;  when  they  made 
raids  on  private  families  in  search  of  wdnes  and 
provisions  they  did  so  with  perfect  politeness, 
but  with  pitiless  determination."  But  if  the 
Prussian  in  1870  was  a  fighting  automaton  with 
a  will  woimd  up  like  a  clock,  what  would  he  be 
now  after  forty  years  of  drill,  and  discipline  far 
more  reasoned,  far  more  desperate,  than  any 
training  ever  conceived  by  the  Romans  in  their 
supremest  triumphs? 

The  danger  menacing  England  is  not  military. 
The  old  Roman  question  of  feeding  the  populace 
is  revived  once  more.  We  are  an  exception  to 
ahnost  every  case  presented  in  history.  We  are 
an  island,  and  in  our  dreams  of  eternal  prosperity, 
dreams  which  have  lasted  ever  since  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Spanish  Armada,  we  have  been  hyp- 
notised into  a  condition  of  universal  languor  and 


20    THE    INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

semi-conscious  indifference.  We  are  like  men 
clutching  at  phantoms,  while  avoiding  realities. 
Few  seem  able  to  see  that  the  gravest  danger  lies 
not  in  anything  military  near  us,  but  in  the  danger 
created  by  a  distance  of  full  three  thousand  miles 
of  water,  the  danger  of  not  having  enough  to 
eat.  The  old  opium  dreams  of  ease  and  opulence 
have  gone  on  for  ages,  until  the  habit  has  become 
a  second  nature.  This  was  the  sort  of  security 
felt  by  the  French  nobles  at  the  breaking  out  of 
the  French  Revolution,  when  hunger  began  to 
gnaw  at  the  vitals  of  the  Parisian  populace.  But 
the  nobles  were  not  saved.  Nonchalance  and 
sang-froid  are  effective  in  the  senate,  the  drawing- 
room,  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  and  in  Rotten  Row. 
But  a  hungry  mob  pays  no  respect  to  what  it 
considers  a  mixture  of  political  debility  and  social 
callousness.  Even  virtue  appears  vapid  in  times 
of  violence,  and  the  wisest  words  from  the  wisest 
orators  fall  like  so  much  rain  on  a  people  tottering 
on  the  verge  of  ruin. 

At  the  first  intimation  of  famine  there  would 
be  a  general  rush  for  food.  The  farmer  would 
soon  cease  to  sell  and  begin  to  hide  his  provisions 
against  the  time  of  his  own  hunger;  the  people 
of  the  cities  would  rush  for  bread  and  flour;  for 
the  first  time  in  England  the  proverb  "bread  is 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    21 

the  staff  of  life,"  would  suggest  something  hollow 
and  sepulchral,  for  the  very  thought  of  being  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  by  hostile  fleets  or  airships 
would  of  itself  paralyse  the  moral  faculties  of  half 
the  population  of  these  islands.  The  certain 
knowledge  of  the  close  proximity  of  battle-ships 
as  formidable  as  our  own,  intercepting,  destroy- 
ing, or  delaying  the  merchant  steamers  arriving 
from  America  or  the  Mediterranean,  would  appal 
the  most  courageous  hearts.^  All  would  feel  the 
crushing  imminence  of  the  new  danger.  Not  a 
shopkeeper,  not  a  butcher  or  a  baker,  not  a  draper 
or  a  stockbroker  or  a  banker,  not  a  bishop  in  his 
palace  or  a  lord  in  his  castle,  not  a  publican  or  a 
politician,  but  would  be  made  to  realise  the  para- 
lysing effects  of  impending  ruin.  All  bombast 
would  cease. 

1  Under  the  heading  "Key  of  the  Empire,"  the  London 
Daily  Telegraph  of  June  22nd,  igi2,  says:  "The  withdrawal 
of  the  British  battle-force  from  the  Mediterranean  brings  this 
question  once  more  into  prominence,  because  by  that  route 
nearly  half  the  wheat  and  other  cereals  required  by  the  British 
people  reaches  this  country.  What  would  be  the  position  of 
the  Government  in  time  of  war  if  these  suppUes  were  suddenly 
cut  oS?  More  than  8,000,000  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United 
Kingdom  are  in  receipt  of  wages  of  about  a  guinea  a  week,  and 
to  them  a  small  rise  in  prices  would  be  a  matter  of  such  grave 
moment  that  they  might  give  way  to  panic,  and  the  whole 
defensive  policy  of  the  country  might  be  deflected  in  response  to 
an  uprising,  and  the  essential  victory  of  the  fleets  in  the  main 
strategical  theatre  might  be  risked  by  the  demand  for  the 
detachment  of  forces  to  secure  the  safe  arrival  of  food." 


22    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Nothing  would  remain  as  it  was.  The  island 
known  as  England  would  appear  like  a  ship  parted 
from  her  moorings,  gone  from  what  seemed  fixed 
and  eternal. 

To  draw  an  antithetical  picture  of  what  would 
happen  to  the  highest  and  lowest  social  grades 
in  such  an  emergency  we  have  but  to  scan  the 
doomsday  pages  of  Jerusalem,  Rome,  Carthage, 
and,  above  all,  to  contemplate  the  "wonders  and 
terrors"  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  every  in- 
stance doom  was  achieved  by  hunger.  Even  in 
cases  where  the  city  had  been  provisioned  for  a 
long  state  of  siege,  hunger  at  last  was  the  doom 
of  all.  It  is  the  lack  of  imagination  that  renders 
so  many  people  in  London,  Liverpool,  and  the 
great  manufacturing  centres  content  to  live  on 
year  after  year  in  a  state  of  chronic  apathy,  they, 
the  very  people  who  would  be  the  first  to  feel  the 
slowly  accumulating  horrors  of  starvation. 

The  two  classes  most  steeped  in  apathy  are  the 
millionaires  and  titled  rich  on  one  hand  and  the 
irresponsible  poor  on  the  other;  the  first  have 
many  things  to  lose,  the  second,  nothing  but  their 
lives,  to  which  they  would  cling  with  frenzied 
tenacity.  The  rich  live  in  mock  security,  think- 
ing it  an  easy  affair  to  escape  in  yachts,  steamers, 
motors,  etc.    An  attempt  would  be  made  to  cross 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    23 

the  water  by  night,  but  the  danger  on  the  water 
would  be  greater  than  the  danger  at  home.  The 
first  thing  the  Government  would  do  would  be 
to  put  the  people  on  short  rations.  Then  all  the 
available  orators  throughout  the  land  would  talk 
to  the  people.  The  people!  Alas,  yes!  For  the 
people  hate  the  pangs  of  hunger  even  more  than 
the  gouty  member  of  Parliament,  so  often  ad- 
vised by  his  physician  to  starve  himself  for  a 
week  or  two  as  a  cure  for  his  aches  and  disorders. 
The  rich  would  find  the  first  weeks  of  the  block- 
ade rather  exciting  and  agreeable.  But  the  man 
in  the  street  would  begin  to  growl  on  the  very 
first  day  famine  cast  her  grun  shadow  across  his 
path.  On  him,  the  hungry  man  with  a  family  of 
starving  children,  sermons,  speeches,  and  reasoned 
editorials  would  produce  no  effect.  All  political 
parties  would  be  blamed,  and  the  end  of  famine 
would  be  a  pandemonium  of  drxmkenness,  frenzy, 
and  destruction.  The  Paris  commune  would  be 
repeated  with  this  difference  —  the  ruin  wrought 
in  London  would  be  incalculably  greater. 

In  France  the  Parisian  mob  caused  the  destruc- 
tion which  was  principally  confined  to  Paris,  but 
in  England  all  the  great  seaports  and  manufac- 
turing centres  would  come  under  the  fury  of  the 
populace,  rendered  insane  from  drink  taken  from 


24    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

the  helpless  publican  around  whose  doors  would 
swarm  the  sturdy  vagrants  and  lazy  hordes  vom- 
ited from  every  portion  of  the  land  as  if  the  lid 
had  been  lifted  from  some  long-hidden  inferno 
under  our  feet.  In  the  universal  fury  and  confu- 
sion one  party  would  blame  the  other,  rage  and 
dismay  would  seize  on  all,  a  chorus  of  curses 
and  vituperation  would  arise  to  drown  authority 
and  urge  the  remnant  on  to  national  annihila- 
tion. Forty-eight  hours  of  cumulative  delirium 
would  wipe  out  a  thousand  years  of  accumulated 
civilisations. 

Ill 

"Tell  your  peoples,"  said  Lord  Rosebery  in  a 
recent  speech,  "if  they  can  believe  it,  that  Europe 
is  rattling  into  barbarism,  and  of  the  pressure 
that  is  put  upon  this  little  England  to  defend 
itself,  its  liberties  and  yours." 

The  signs  are  hopeful  when  men  like  Lord 
Rosebery  begin  to  tell  the  people  the  truth.  He 
has  not  told  all  the  truth,  but  a  little  will  do  to 
start  with.  When  the  speaker  said :  "  I  should  like 
Parliament  to  vote  supplies  for  two  years  and  then 
pack  itself  up  in  three  or  four  obsolete  warships 
and  go  for  a  trip  in  order  to  find  out  something 
about  the  Empire,"  he  touched  a  sore  spot. 


THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    25 

There  are  politicians  who  talk  about  Australia 
and  Canada  much  as  they  would  talk  about  the 
Pigmies  of  Central  Africa  or  the  "Nigger  of  the 
Narcissus."  They  find  these  countries  and  their 
people  good  subjects  for  an  idle  hour,  but  mighty 
boring  when  discussed  seriously.  Even  now 
Western  Canada,  which  is  certainly  the  most  fer- 
tile part  of  that  splendid  country,  is  being  invaded 
by  determined  settlers  from  the  United  States, 
peaceably  and  swiftly,  and  it  looks  as  if  the  whole 
of  the  country  w^est  of  Winnipeg  would  before 
long  be  in  possession  of  Americans.  This  of  itself 
may  force  England  and  America  into  a  coalition 
of  material  and  spiritual  forces,  and  what  looks 
like  a  menace  may  turn  out  a  blessing. 

We  saw,  not  long  ago,  with  what  enthusiasm 
the  American  Fleet  was  received  by  the  people  of 
New  Zealand  and  Australia.  This  popular  out- 
burst was  a  sign  of  the  times.  In  London  it  was 
accepted  in  the  "blood  is  thicker  than  water" 
type  of  sentiment.  But  sentiment  had  very  little 
to  do  with  this  singular  manifestation.  It  was 
inspired  by  fear  of  the  yellow  man;  fear  and  dread 
of  a  descent  into  Australia  of  the  Chinese  and 
Japanese.  This  is  not  the  time  to  bring  cheap 
platitudes  to  bear  on  one  of  the  most  appalling 
outlooks  that  ever  confronted  an  old,  rich,  and 


26    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

lethargic  nation.  More  than  thirty  years  ago,  I 
spent  one  year  in  Sydney  and  Melbourne,  and 
some  years  later  I  wrote  and  spoke  on  the  subject 
of  a  Chinese  invasion  of  Australasia,  and  was  the 
first  to  bring  this  question  before  the  public.  War 
occurred  between  Russia  and  China,  as  I  pointed 
out,  and  Australia  and  America  are  now  fully 
aroused  to  the  actualities  of  the  time. 

The  question  of  war  in  our  day  is  no  longer  a 
question  of  passion,  but  of  commercial  expansion. 
"Powerful  influences,"  says  the  Yorkshire  Post, 
"some  of  them  pecuniarily  interested,  others  con- 
cerned for  ambitions,  the  exclusion  of  this  or  that 
commercial  competition  from  this  or  that  market, 
are  constantly  at  work  pressing  forward  the  de- 
velopment of  armaments,  and  hence  the  imper- 
ative need  for  a  union  of  defence  that  shall 
embrace  the  whole  Empire."  But  a  imion  of  the 
whole  Empire  will  not  turn  the  yellow  man  from 
the  Pacific  nor  keep  famine  from  England's  shores. 

The  London  Daily  News  hopes  that,  whether 
as  the  result  of  a  catastrophe  or  not,  the  working 
men  of  the  world  will  refuse  to  be  sacrificed  as  the 
creatures  of  destruction.  But  to  my  mind  there 
is  no  way  for  the  people  of  England  to  escape 
being  sacrificed  in  the  impending  Continental 
commercial-war  expansion  but  a  social  and  com- 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    27 

mercial  union  of  all  English-speaking  countries 
throughout  the  worid.  All  other  combinations 
are  purely  chimerical,  intended  for  dreamers  who 
do  not  understand  the  signs  of  the  day,  and  who 
do  not  reahse  what  is  going  on  in  the  dominat- 
ing centres  of  commerce  and  politics.  What,  for 
instance,  would  a  few  men-of-war  avail  Canada 
were  America  to  declare  war  against  England? 
In  that  case  Canada  would  be  swiftly  invaded 
by  a  milHon  men  from  the  Western  States. 

On  the  other  hand,  were  England,  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  and  Canada  to  federate  with  Amer- 
ica in  a  social-commercial  union,  it  could  not 
make  any  real  difference  whether  Canada  called 
herself  British  or  American,  or  Anglo-American. 
What  common-sense  Englishmen  want  is  secur- 
ity instead  of  doubt,  order  instead  of  confusion, 
progress  instead  of  decadence.  What  common- 
sense  Americans  want  is  the  certainty  of  peace 
and  progress.  As  for  Canada  arming  against  an 
attack  from  some  European  Power,  the  notion 
is  absurd.  The  reason  is  obvious  —  America 
would  never  permit  so  much  as  the  landing  of  a 
single  regiment  of  foreign  troops  on  Canadian 
soil.  The  truth  is,  as  the  Evening  Post  of  New 
York  has  pointed  out,  the  building  of  a  Canadian 
navy  will  only  serve  to  irritate  and  cause  friction 


28    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

between  the  two  peoples,  where  at  present  there 
is  no  cause  of  inharmony  or  misgiving. 

Look  where  we  may,  we  cannot  escape  from  the 
idea  of  an  Anglo-International  Federation.  There 
is  scarcely  a  limit  to  possible  combinations  and 
alliances  against  England,  but  only  one  alliance 
possible  for  England's  permanent  good,  and  no 
friend  of  Anglo-Saxon  progress  would  think  of 
preaching  an  Anglo-American  alliance  based 
solely  on  political  and  material  interest.  All 
merely  political  understandings  are  foredoomed 
to  short  life.  The  forthcoming  Anglo-American 
Federation,  to  endure,  must  include  four  working 
elements  in  combination:  (a)  the  political,  (b)  the 
commercial,  (c)  the  religious,  (d)  the  social.  It 
would  be  the  business  of  the  British  Parliament 
and  the  U.  S.  Congress  to  take  the  initiative  in 
all  matters  respecting  politics  and  commerce. 
These  questions  would  form  the  least  of  the  diffi- 
culties to  be  overcome. 

It  would  not  require  much  in  a  moment  of  im- 
minent peril  to  cause  a  fusion  of  American  and 
British  material  interests.  What  is  more  diffi- 
cult and  vastly  more  important  is  the  work  to 
be  done  by  ministers  of  religion  from  English  and 
American  pulpits  in  conjunction  with  workers 
in  the  field  of  social,  scientific,  and  intellectual 


THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE    29 

progress.  A  movement  should  be  started  which 
would  make  it  possible  for  the  leading  preachers 
of  all  denominations  in  England  and  America  to 
make  periodical  international  visits,  the  English- 
man preaching  from  an  American  pulpit,  the 
American  preaching  from  an  English  pulpit,  hav- 
ing for  a  universal  text  the  spiritual  and  social 
unification  of  Anglo-American  peoples;  the  main 
part  of  the  great  work  would  be  accomplished  in 
a  year  from  the  day  of  departure.  In  such  a  case 
it  is  easy  to  see  what  would  happen  —  politicians 
at  Washington  and  Westminster  would  be  forced 
to  join  in  a  movement  that  embraced  all  de- 
nominations of  EngHsh-speaking  Christians.  In 
conjunction  with  this  religious  movement,  the 
intellectual  social  element  would  harmonise  and 
develop  on  the  same  Hnes. 

The  destiny  of  America  is  wrapped  up  in  that 
of  England.  On  the  day  that  England  sinks  to 
a  second-class  Power  in  Europe,  a  European  co- 
alition will  develop  which  will  have  for  its  prime 
object  the  partition  of  Mexico,  Central  America, 
and  the  States  of  South  America.  European  ex- 
pansion beyond  the  seas  is  no  idle  dream,  since 
both  Germany  and  France  are  now  fairly  em- 
barked on  colonial  schemes  for  commercial  de- 
velopment. 


30    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

On  the  day  England  drops  into  a  second-rate 
Power,  America's  troubles  will  begin;  the  com- 
binations for  America  would  present  infinite 
possibilities,  and  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  ques- 
tions in  the  Pacific  would  prove  but  a  small  part 
of  the  danger.  There  would  be  the  combined 
navies  of  the  two  greatest  Continental  nations  in 
Europe,  and  perhaps  three  to  deal  with,  possibly 
four  —  Germany,  Austria,  France,  and  Italy.  But 
far  graver  still  is  the  thought  that  in  America  the 
foreign  population  is  gaining  on  the  Anglo-Amer- 
ican population,  and  without  the  union  of  the 
English  and  the  Americans  of  British  and  English 
descent  the  United  States  could  in  twenty  years 
from  now  become  absolutely  detached  from  the 
sentiments  and  aspirations  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
mind.  For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  a  strenu- 
ous effort  will  have  to  be  made  towards  Anglo- 
American  solidarity. 


THE  PROPHET  WITHOUT  HONOURS 

THE  thought  has  often  occurred  to  me:  what 
would  Tolstoy's  disciples,  rich  or  otherwise, 
do  if,  by  some  stroke  of  fate,  he  were  suddenly 
deprived  of  three  things  —  his  title,  his  inde- 
pendence, and  his  prestige,  I  mean  his  prestige 
as  a  prophet  perpetually  facing  the  supposed 
dangers  of  a  fixed  residence  in  Russia?  What 
would  become  of  him  were  he  to  land  in  England 
to-morrow  possessed  of  nothing  but  the  clothes 
on  his  back,  with  no  prospect  of  future  social  or 
political  glory?  If  I  know  the  world,  and  I  think 
I  do,  here  is  something  like  what  would  happen. 

Scene.  —  The  wealthy  soi-disant  Christian  So- 
cialist, Sir  Percy  Prim  and  Lady  Prim,  in 
their  home. 

Sm  Percy:  And  so  Tolstoy  has  actually  ar- 
rived in  London !    We  must  have  him  here  to  tea. 

Lady  Prim:  That  would  be  very  nice,  if  we 
could  get  him  before  Lady  Castlegarden  has  him 
at  her  house.  You  know  what  an  outspoken 
enthusiast  she  is  about  all  such  things:  Christian 

1  This  study  was  written  in  1909. 


32    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Science,  Christian  Socialism,  and  especially  Tol- 
stoy and  his  teachings,  and  she  is  sure  to  be 
among  the  very  first  to  invite  him;  you  know 
how  very  up-to-date  she  is,  and  she  says  old- 
fashioned  people  always  make  her  feel  weak, 
they  "draw"  from  her.  She  is  certain  to  pounce 
on  him  like  a  hungry  old  cat  on  a  country 
mouse. 

Sm  Percy:  Country  mouse,  perhaps,  but  any- 
thing but  a  young  one. 

Lady  Prim  :  In  the  eyes  of  Lady  Castlegarden 
young  and  old  are  all  one  if  up-to-date. 

Sir  Percy:  Well,  anyhow,  it's  about  time  we 
offered  our  friends  something  in  return  for  enter- 
tainment they  have  given  us  lately.  That  last 
evening  at  Lady  Kant's  —  quite  entertaining !  — 
although  no  one  pretends  to  imderstand  the  airs 
and  tricks  of  that  prodigy  with  his  fiddle,  young 
Vichy  —  Vichy  —  what 's  his  name?  Quite  amus- 
ing Lady  Kant  declaring  that  the  saucy  brat  is 
not  doing  it  himself,  but  Paganini  is  doing  it 
through  him.    Quite  novel,  I  must  confess. 

Lady  Prim:  She  draws  the  bow  rather  long, 
but  you  know  she  loves  the  sensational. 

Sir  Percy:  And  there  is  Lady  Castlegarden, 
with  her  mind-reader,  who  failed  to  tell  the  num- 
ber of  the  banknote  I  had  in  my  pocket,  but 


PROPHET  WITHOUT  HONOUR  3$ 

described  in  detail  the  ticket  the  pawnbroker 
gave  the  Duchess  of  Rigglesworth  when  she 
pawned  a  tiara  to  raise  money  to  send  a  mission- 
ary to  the  niggers  in  Fiji.  Most  amusing  —  the 
silly  geese!  I  think  if  we  can't  off-set  that  by 
showing  them  the  greatest  Russian  that  ever 
lived,  a  born  nobleman  and  a  gentleman,  a  prophet 
in  his  own  country  as  well  as  out  of  it;  if  we  can't 
go  them  one  better  on  their  puppy  prodigies  and 
mind-readuig  buffoons,  the  sooner  we  cease  try- 
ing to  entertain  anyone  the  better.  And,  then, 
the  one  man  in  all  the  world  who  has  made 
Christian  Socialism  respected,  the  man  who  has 
made  the  whole  world  look  towards  the  Russian 
Bethlehem  with  awe  and  reverence  —  in  one 
word,  the  saviour  of  modern  society. 

Lady  Prim  (opening  the  latest  edition  of  the 
evening  paper,  and  reading) :  What 's  this?  I  can 
hardly  believe  my  eyes!  Tolstoy  is  no  longer  a 
count,  and  he  has  landed  here  without  a  penny 
in  his  pocket! 

Sir  Percy:  Who  says  so? 

Lady  Prim:  Here  it  is  in  the  paper.  He  has 
lost  everything,  and  is  now  no  better  than  the  rest 
of  them.  We  could  n't  have  him  here  without 
appearing  flagrantly  absurd  and  highly  provincial. 

Sir  Percy:  Good  heavens!    I 'm  glad  we  knew 


34    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

that  in  time.    Had  we  invited  the  old  fellow  here 
he  might  have  asked  me  for  money. 

Enter  the  Countess  of  Castlegarden. 

Lady  Castlegarden:  Have  you  heard  the 
news?     Tolstoy  is  in  London ! 

Ser  Percy:  Yes,  but  stripped  of  everything, 
without  so  much  as  a  change  of  clothes,  every- 
thing gone,  titles,  estates,  everything! 

Lady  Castlegarden:  And  my  son  Robert 
comes  of  age  next  week,  and  he  has  always  de- 
clared he  will  give  half  his  income  to  Tolstoy  for 
the  propagation  of  his  teachings! 

Lady  Prim:  But  something  must  be  done! 

Sir  Percy:  Certainly  something  must  be 
done,  and  done  in  time.  He  must  be  kept  away 
from  Tolstoy. 

Lady  Castlegarden:  How  fortunate!  Here 
comes  Robert  now!  Do  you  know,  we  were  just 
talking  about  something  very  serious?  Your 
idol,  Tolstoy,  is  in  London,  but  broken  and  utterly 
done  for.  He  is  no  longer  even  a  Russian 
count ! 

Robert  {coolly) :  I  hope  I  'm  not  so  stupid  as 
to  assist  a  man  who  has  nothing  to  recommend 
him  but  his  writings. 

Sir  Percy:  Most  certainly  not !    A  man  must 


PROPHET  WITHOUT  HONOUR  35 

at  least  be  a  gentleman,  and  these  writers  with- 
out means  are  simply  vagabonds  in  disguise  — 
that 's  what  I  say ! 

Robert:  Somehow  I  had  an  idea  Tolstoyism 
would  n't  last  very  long. 

Lady  Prim:  In  my  opinion,  when  he  lost  his 
title  he  lost  everything. 

Sir  Percy  nods  his  head,  Lady  Prim  frowns,  and 
Robert  looks  up  vacantly  at  the  ceiling. 

The  scene  changes.    A  group  of  successful  literary 
men. 

First  Writer:  So  the  old  fanatic  is  actually 
here  at  last! 

Second  Writer:  "Old  fanatic"  sounds  good, 
coming  from  one  who  was  received  in  Russia  by 
Tolstoy,  and  who  wrote  a  glowing  account  of 
the  visit  to  the  Daily  Boomerang,  in  which  the 
"Count"  was  depicted  as  a  man  with  the  face 
and  the  figure  of  a  prophet,  only  a  little  lower 
than  an  archangel. 

Third  Writer:  Well,  I  always  knew  there 
was  no  bottom  in  Tolstoyism.  All  an  illusion,  you 
see  —  illusion  of  time,  place,  and  circumstance. 

First  Writer:  How's  that?  What  do  you 
mean? 

Third  Writer:   I  simply  mean  that  Tolstoy 


36    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

managed  things  while  he  was  at  it  much  as 
Rockefeller  managed  things  in  the  oil  line,  and 
just  as  successfully,  except  that  he  asked  for  no 
money.  Tolstoy  was  something  more  than  a 
novelist  a  la  mode;  he  was  a  great  psychologist. 
He  knew  how  to  bring  the  English  and  Americans 
to  his  home,  and  how  to  make  them  talk  about 
him  after  they  left.  What  the  world  wants  is  not 
a  poor  shoemaker  sitting  mending  shoes,  but  a 
live  prophet,  dressed  like  Elijah;  only,  instead 
of  being  fed  by  ravens,  fed  by  a  mighty  good 
cook,  and  a  small  army  of  servants  in  attend- 
ance, with  a  fashionable  countess  to  give  them 
their  orders,  and  to  take  good  care  that  the 
prophet  has  everything  his  mind  and  body  re- 
quire to  make  his  journey  through  this  vale  of 
tears  as  jaunty  and  luxurious  as  it  is  possible  for 
money  to  make  it. 

Second  Writer  :  We  are  living  in  a  picturesque 
age. 

FmsT  Writer:  Don't  you  think  it  is  senti- 
ment that  has  turned  picturesque? 

Second  Writer:  Most  men  are  like  most 
women;  they  like  sentiment,  but  they  want 
plenty  of  "show"  behind  it.  They  want  it 
picturesque. 

Third  Writer:  Romantic,  in  one  word. 


PROPHET  WITHOUT  HONOUR  37 

Second  Writer:  Certainly,  but  they  want 
their  romance  with  all  modern  comforts. 

Third  Writer:  If  Tolstoy's  cook  had  fed  his 
foreign  visitors  on  cabbage  and  celery  tips  he 
would  have  had  few  callers  from  a  great  distance. 

Second  Writer  :  Snobbery  avoids  three  things 
—  indi\'idualism,  inconvenience,  and  indigestion. 

Third  Writer:  And  that  leads  me  to  what  I 
was  going  to  say  about  Tolstoyism  being  founded 
on  illusions.  You  know  the  old  saw,  "Distance 
lends  enchantment";  well,  this  question  of  dis- 
tance was  a  great  factor  in  Tolstoy's  Hfe.  When 
we  know  a  man  is  dif&cult  to  get  at,  our  desire 
rises  fifty  per  cent  in  the  scale  of  illusions.  Follow 
this  up  by  the  illusion  of  place,  his  remote  country 
mansion,  all  in  the  Russian  style,  so  unlike  any- 
thing in  the  lives  of  western  authors ;  follow  that 
up  again  by  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  his 
strange  existence,  the  flat  contradictions,  the 
impossible  paradox,  and  I  say  you  have  enough 
to  float  the  reputation  of  three  novelists  and  keep 
them  well  above  the  Wilbur  Wright  line  of  success- 
ful aeroplane  manoeuvring.  It  is  wonderful  what 
proper  management  will  do.  Tolstoy  was  a  great 
manager.  He  neglected  nothing  that  could  by 
any  possibility  attract  the  gaze  of  the  whole  world 
to  himself.    His  contradictions  and  denials  of  men 


38    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

of  genius  equal  to,  if  not  greater  than,  himself, 
was  a  tactical  stroke  in  keeping  with  everything 
else  in  his  luxurious  and  easy  life. 

Second  Writer:  It  is  amazing  what  an  attrac- 
tion there  is  in  cheap  things  that  are  not  quite 
easy  to  get. 

First  Writer:  As  a  proof  of  that,  compare 
the  miracle  worker,  the  late  Father  John,  with 
Tolstoy.  Father  John  expected  money  from  the 
rich  to  carry  on  his  charitable  work;  he  was  a 
poor  priest  with  no  social  standing,  and  the  Eng- 
Ush  and  the  Americans  ignored  the  humble  priest 
and  passed  on  to  Tolstoy,  who  was  more  difficult 
to  reach  —  and  cheaper.  There  was  absolutely 
nothing  to  pay. 

Second  Writer:  Sometimes  I  wonder  if 
Tolstoy  did  not  begin  by  taking  to  heart  Carlyle's 
saying  that  most  people  are  fools,  and  simply 
acting  on  that. 

Third  Writer:  All  the  same,  I'm  sorry  this 
thing  has  happened.  Had  Tolstoy  remained  in 
his  old  position  in  Russia  two  months  longer  I 
should  have  been  better  off  by  nearly  four  hundred 
pounds.  I  was  making  arrangements  to  go  out 
and  beard  the  prophet  in  his  palatial  den,  take  a 
series  of  sensational  views,  one  or  two  sketches, 
something  novel,  my  own  idea,  be  away  about  a 


PROPHET  WITHOUT  HONOUR  39 

month,  spend  twenty  or  thirty  pounds,  come 
home,  and  clear  about  three  hundred  and  eighty, 
with  the  satisfaction  of  having  had  a  rousing 
good  time. 

First  Writer:  Lucky  thing  for  some  people 
that  Tolstoy  was  not  in  the  boot  and  shoe  busi- 
ness instead  of  a  great  landed  proprietor. 

Second  Writer:  Shoemaking  is  not  romantic 
enough ! 

Third  Writer:  Yet,  I'll  bet  you  it's  the  last 
profession  he  will  stick  to  now  that  he  is  in  Eng- 
land dead  broke. 

Scene  changes  again.  A  fine  country  house  in  the 
Surrey  hills.  Rich  proprietor  known  as  a  keen 
disciple  of  Tolstoy,  enthusiastic,  always  will- 
ing to  spend  money  on  the  Tolstoyan  Utopia. 
The  proprietor  is  sitting  at  his  desk,  engaged 
in  writing  a  pamphlet  on  how  best  to  dissemi- 
nate the  Tolstoyan  idea.  Enter  a  newspaper 
reporter  from  London. 

Reporter:  Have  you  heard  what  has 
happened? 

Proprietor:  Nothing  very  serious,  I  hope. 

Reporter:  Tolstoy  has  arrived  in  London 
without  a  penny;  his  title,  his  estates,  his  social 
prestige,  all  gone. 


40    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Proprietor:  What!  You  mean  to  say  he  has 
nothing  left! 

Reporter:  Nothing  but  his  genius. 

Proprietor:  Great  Caesar!  Then  he  is  only 
another  Maxim  Gorky! 

He  sits  hack  in  his  chair,  stupefied. 

Reporter:  He  is  stopping  at  a  cheap  hotel 
in  the  Strand,  and  has  been  assisted  by  some 
working-men  who  have  pawned  their  watches  for 
the  purpose.  They  say  Tolstoy  must  come  out 
here  to  you,  where  he  can  have  a  good  home;  he 
intends  setting  up  as  a  shoemaker,  working  at 
the  usual  rates  at  that  trade. 

Proprietor  {gasping):  You  don't  mean  it! 

Reporter:  That  is  the  intention. 

Proprietor:  This  takes  my  breath  away 
What  am  I  to  do?  This  thing  has  knocked  me 
all  in  a  heap.  It  is  a  nightmare!  And,  hang  it 
all,  Tolstoy  on  his  estates  in  Russia  is  one  thing, 
Tolstoy  a  beggar  living  on  my  estate  is  another. 
And,  besides,  fancy  people  coming  here  to  have 
their  boots  mended!  Why  will  Russian  counts 
get  broke  and  turn  themselves  into  dirty 
mujiks ! 

Reporter:  Perhaps  you  could  take  him  for  a 
few  days,  and  then  pass  him  on  to  the  common 


PROPHET  WITHOUT  HONOUR  41 

working-men,  who  seem  to  have  remained  his 
warm  disciples  in  spite  of  all. 

Proprietor  {tapping  his  forehead):  Stay!  I 
have  an  idea.  Tolstoy  is  an  old  man.  He  can't 
live  long  at  the  most  and  worst.  His  keep  would 
not  cost  much.  I  have  a  vacant  room  in  the  ser- 
vant's house,  at  the  top  over  there,  where  he  can 
mend  boots  and  write  without  bothering  me; 
and  at  the  same  time  things  will  appear  to  be  as 
they  were.    No  one  need  be  compromised. 

Reporter:  And  when  he  dies  bury  him  in 
your  back  garden. 

Proprietor:  A  splendid  idea!  And  hang  it 
all,  later  on  I  '11  reimburse  myself  by  charging  the 
beggars  a  shilling  per  head  when  they  come  here 
on  their  annual  visits  to  view  the  grave.  His 
drawing  power  is  gone  now,  but  his  grave  will 
draw  later  on.    A  splendid  idea! 


THE  NEW  PREACHER 

THEY  had  listened  to  the  first  sermon  of  the 
new  minister,  and  the  people,  now  slowly 
leaving  the  church,  were  more  than  usually 
silent,  more  profoundly  impressed  than  on  any 
former  Sunday  within  the  memory  of  the  oldest 
member  of  the  congregation.  Something  had 
happened.  The  people  might  have  been  coming 
away  from  a  long  and  solemn  funeral  service; 
but,  as  a  young  stockbroker  remarked  to  his 
friend  as  they  walked  down  the  street,  it  was  a 
funeral  service  with  an  immediate  resurrection. 
The  old  was  gone,  the  new  had  taken  its  place. 
The  broker  as  he  walked  tried  to  explain. 

"That  man,"  he  said,  alluding  to  the  new 
preacher,  "has  what  artists  call  the  true  magic. 
He  tears  down  the  false  and  then  builds  up  the 
reality.  Did  you  notice  what  an  influence  settled 
down  over  the  congregation  when  he  began  his 
description  of  worldly  actions  and  reactions? 
Did  you  feel  the  sensation  of  sinking  down  and 
then  rising  up  and  out  into  a  clearer  and  better 
atmosphere?  " 


THE  NEW  PREACHER        43 

His  companion  answered  that  he  was  fully 
conscious  of  the  sensation  at  the  time,  and 
asked: 

"Does  it  not  come  under  the  heading  of  rheto- 
rical eloquence?  Is  it  not  due  to  the  artistry  of 
the  words  and  sentences?" 

"All  fine  preaching  is  more  or  less  rhetorical," 
was  the  answer;  "but  the  sermon  of  the  new 
minister  had  in  it  something  both  higher  and 
deeper  than  rhetoric;  it  was  full  of  emotion.  No 
concoction  of  empty  phrases  and  fine  words  will 
ever  influence  critical  and  sensitive  people.  To 
revive  drooping  plants  the  water  must  sink  to  the 
roots.  Words  and  sentiments  must  touch  the 
deepest  recesses  of  emotion.  Mere  argument  can 
never  be  made  to  influence  in  the  same  way. 
Cold  logic  is  useless  when  you  want  to  reach  the 
high  and  touch  the  deep." 

The  stockbroker's  companion  admitted  all  this 
to  be  true,  but  he  demanded  to  know  how  it  came 
about  that  the  preaching  of  certain  revivalists, 
and  notably  that  of  the  early  revivalists,  ap- 
pealed to  an  order  of  mind  quite  the  opposite  to 
that  of  the  mind  used  to  rhetorical  culture  and 
classical  learning.  The  broker  stopped,  and, 
facing  his  companion,  explained: 

"The  emotion  of  the  ordinary  revivalist  and 


44    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

the  emotion  displayed  by  this  new  minister  are 
not  on  the  same  level." 

''You  mean  the  one  is  dominated  by  a  sort 
of  blind  feeling,  the  other  by  a  conscious  intelli- 
gence? " 

"This  new  preacher  is  an  artist  in  words." 

"You  mean,"  said  the  other,  "  that  the  ordinary 
revivalist  daubs  his  colours  on  the  congregational 
canvas  while  this  new  preacher  blends  his  colours 
and  uses  his  brush  with  skill  and  caution?  " 

"He  does  all  that  and  more.  I  noticed  while 
he  was  preaching  how  every  word  fit  the  idea, 
how  every  sentence  fit  every  sentiment.  Things 
were  unified.  His  whole  sermon  was  as  orderly 
as  a  musical  composition  and  as  harmonious  as  a 
beautiful  picture." 

"So  you  think  he  was  conscious  of  being  the 
master  of  his  sermon,  instead  of  the  sermon  the 
master  of  him?" 

"  Impressional  preaching  is  a  good  thing  if  the 
congregation  is  not  critical.  An  audience  of 
educated  and  experienced  people  have  the  critical 
faculty  too  strongly  developed  to  be  influenced 
by  a  preacher's  impulsiveness,  no  matter  how 
eloquent  he  may  be.  As  soon  as  I  know  that  a 
preacher  is  as  critical  as  I  am  I  listen  to  what  he 
has  to  say,  ready  to  be  moved  by  his  words  if 


THE  NEW  PREACHER        45 

there  is  anything  in  them  superior  to  the  kind 
of  argument  we  hear  every  day.  This  new 
preacher  is  logical,  but  we  who  have  lived  on 
logic  want  something  more.  We  want  the  thing 
which  we  do  not  possess." 

"You  mean  the  art?" 

"I  mean  the  art  if  you  care  to  call  it  by  that 
word;  the  art  that  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a  sort 
of  verbal  inspiration,  a  sort  of  word-magic,  the 
sort  of  thing  no  fellow  can  quite  explain,  no 
matter  how  we  reason  over  it.  You  see,  the 
thing  is  too  simple  to  be  explained." 

"Too  simple!"  The  broker's  companion 
stopped  suddenly  and  looked  the  other  in  the 
face. 

"Yes,  it  is  too  simple!  Have  you  forgotten 
your  Emerson  already?  The  simple  is  always 
the  result  of  the  complex." 

They  remained  sUent  for  some  time,  then  the 
broker  continued: 

"  In  every  art  the  finest  things  are  the  clearest 
things;  they  bear  a  vital  exterior  evidence,  full 
of  significant  power.  When  any  art  fails  to  do 
this  it  is  not  fine  art;  it  is  crude  art." 

"You  mean  to  imply  that  the  majority  of 
preachers  fail  to  influence  their  congregations 
because  of  their  want  of  such  art?" 


46    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

"The  vast  majority  fail  to  impress  their  hear- 
ers, not  from  lack  of  sincerity,  or  honesty,  or 
deep  conviction,  but  from  lack  of  this  poetic  art, 
which  means  beauty  united  to  power,  conviction 
united  to  what  critics  call  the  'creative  faculty.'" 

"I  must  admit,"  said  the  other,  "that  I  rarely 
attend  church  simply  to  hear  the  preacher.  If  I 
know  what  he  is  going  to  preach  about  I  usually 
know  what  he  is  going  to  say.  I  sit  and  listen 
to  the  old  platitudes  in  the  name  of  ethics,  and 
am  mighty  glad  when  the  sermon  is  over." 

"This  is  true  of  the  majority  of  church-goers 
to-day,"  returned  the  broker.  "Most  of  us  go 
to  hear  the  music  first;  the  sermon  is  thrown 
in  to  give  the  service  some  show  of  moral  and 
religious  sentiment.  I  confess  I,  too,  went  to 
church  to-day  to  hear  the  music.  Now  I  have 
forgotten  all  about  the  music  and  am  still  under 
the  spell  cast  by  the  new  minister,  whose  correct 
name  I  hardly  know." 

"And  yet  all  the  words  he  used  in  his  twenty- 
minute  sermon  are  to  be  found  in  Webster's 
Abridged,"  said  the  other,  smiling. 

"Truth  on  Sunday  requires  Sunday  clothes." 

"You  mean  the  common  truths  expressed  by 
the  ordinary  preacher  are  too  common  to 
impress?" 


THE  NEW   PREACHER        47 

"The  ordinary  preacher  comes  before  his  con- 
gregation with  the  same  sentiments,  the  same 
expressions  which  served  him  during  the  week. 
He  has  changed  nothing.  The  people  have  put 
on  their  Sunday  best,  the  beauty  of  the  women 
has  been  enhanced  by  colour  and  elegance,  the 
character  of  the  men  has  been  enlivened  by  a 
more  fastidious  attention  to  cut  of  garment,  but 
in  his  words,  his  attitude,  his  moods,  the  preacher 
remains  exactly  what  he  was  on  the  previous 
Friday  or  Saturday.  He  is  not  on  the  art  level  of 
his  congregation y 

"That  is  a  great  point,"  said  the  other  musingly. 

"Every  ineffectual  effort  sinks  to  the  level  of 
the  commonplace,"  continued  the  broker;  "but 
in  these  matters  the  simple  and  the  common  are 
as  wide  apart  as  two  poles.  Most  people,  in  try- 
ing to  be  natural  and  simple,  become  ordinary 
to  the  verge  of  boredom." 

"So  you  think  the  homely  truths  have  ceased 
to  influence  church-goers?" 

"A  highly  educated  congregation  demands 
something  different.  What  we  of  the  big  cos- 
mopolitan cities  want  to-day  is  not  household 
preaching,  but  household  inspiration." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  the  word  'inspira- 
tion'?" 


48    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

"Religious  feeling  united  to  intellectual  im- 
agination, added  to  a  something  which  eludes 
definition." 

"A  sort  of  divine  mood,  in  which  the  preacher 
and  the  artist  are  one." 

"Our  senates,  law  courts,  universities,  studios, 
and  literary  coteries  contain  more  gifted  men  than 
the  churches." 

"The  fact  is,"  said  the  other  with  emphasis, 
"the  rapid  progress  made  in  the  world  of  art 
and  music  in  recent  years  has  made  the  efforts 
put  forth  by  our  leading  churches  look  small  and 
insignificant  in  comparison." 

"But  they  have  clutched  at  music,"  said  the 
broker,  "clutched  at  it  like  a  drowning  man  at  a 
straw." 

"Yes,  it  is  a  grave  error." 

After  a  significant  silence  the  other  said: 

"The  mood  evoked  by  music  is  transcendental. 
We  soar  on  airy  wings  while  we  listen,  but  we 
descend  to  earth  as  soon  as  the  last  strains  have 
ceased.  Music  entrances,  but  the  trance  is  brief. 
The  religious  spirit  is  very  different.  We  feel  it 
as  a  waking  reality.  It  is  something  we  take  with 
us  from  the  home  to  the  office  in  the  city.  Music 
is  a  passion,  religion  is  a  principle.'" 

"  Is  not  fine  music  a  good  thing  for  the  church?  " 


THE  NEW  PREACHER        49 

"Its  true  mission  is  to  open  a  way.  Viewed  in 
this  light,  its  effect  is  sometimes  marvellous,  but 
so  is  the  effect  produced  by  an  application  of 
electric  power  to  the  himian  nerves  —  a  power 
which  thrills,  but  does  not  feed.  Real  religion 
is  much  more  than  a  mental  stimulus." 

"You  mean  to  imply  that  the  churches  are 
depending  on  music  to  take  the  place  of  effective 
preaching?" 

"They  are  tr3mig  to  feed  the  people  on  electric 
shocks." 

"And  in  the  meantime  the  people  are  vmder- 
going  a  spiritual  famine.  Some  churches  offer  a 
regular  Sunday  banquet,  where  everything  is 
present  but  the  staff  of  Hfe.  As  matters  stand 
now,  music  is  the  champagne  of  the  banquet,  the 
sermon  a  fricassee  composed  of  fish,  flesh,  and 
fowl." 

"  We  have  made  great  strides  forward  in  every 
line  of  accomplishment  except  that  of  original, 
true,  and  emotional  preaching,"  said  the  other, 
as  if  waking  out  of  a  reverie. 

"I  agree,"  said  his  companion;  "but  emotion 
in  itself  is  not  an  art,  but  a  gift.  The  business 
of  the  artist  is  to  direct  emotion,  tone  it  into 
rhythm,  and  make  it  effective." 

"We  are  too  young  to  remember  the  oldtime 


50    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

actors  who  used  to  tear  a  passion  to  tatters,  or 
the  great  revivalists  like  Peter  Cartwright  who 
swung  sinners  over  the  jaws  of  Tophet  until  their 
feet  touched  perdition ;  but  in  giving  up  the  old, 
we  have  taken  to  pulpit  talk  which  is  hardly  up 
to  the  intellectual  level  of  the  ordinary  scientific 
lecturer." 

"Is  that  not  why  the  majority  of  preachers 
pass  in  society  as  intellectualists  without  a  special 
religious  gift,  and  without  a  real  spiritual  mis- 
sion, possessing  no  vital  influence  on  the  people 
they  meet  in  daily  Ufe?" 

"Ministers  have  too  long  flattered  the  people 
by  all  sorts  of  notions  cloaked  imder  the  name  of 
religion,  in  which  the  soul  has  no  more  place  than 
a  sermon  would  have  in  the  arena  of  the  Stock 
Exchange  on  a  busy  day." 

"Can  science  and  religion  ever  be  made  to 
mingle  and  harmonise?"  asked  the  other  with 
feeling. 

"Formerly  we  humbugged  others  while  we 
remained  undeceived,  but  now  each  man  does 
his  best  to  humbug  himself.  Science  has  as  much 
to  do  with  religious  sentiment  and  psychic  emo- 
tion as  it  has  to  do  with  the  natural  flowers  that 
grow  xmaided  in  the  woods  and  fields.  The 
smart  man  in  the  pulpit  is  no  better  than  the 


THE  NEW  PREACHER        51 

smart  man  on  the  Stock  Exchange.  He  receives 
no  more  respect  from  the  world  generally.  In 
taking  away  the  grosser  superstitions  from  rehgion 
our  ministers  have  taken  away  reverence  and  all 
the  finer  feelings  and  sentiments  that  belong  to 
the  realm  of  the  psychic.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  scientific  poetry,  no  such  thing  as  scientific 
emotion,  no  such  thing  as  scientific  religion." 

"That  means  that  no  science  wdll  ever  touch 
even  the  hem  of  the  garment  of  the  soul,"  said 
the  other. 

"Quite  so.  Intellectual  preaching  is  a  religious 
illusion,  hke  operatic  music  in  the  church  on 
Sunday.  There  are  people  v\^ho  think  such  things 
fill  a  long-felt  want;  what  they  really  fill  is  a 
social  vacuum  on  Sunday." 

"Religious  leaders  have  got  hold  of  the  wrong 
art,"  said  the  other,  with  a  luminous  smile. 

"Worldly  art,"  said  the  broker  curtly.  "Sci- 
ence is  a  material  state  of  the  mind,  religion  a 
spiritual  state  of  the  soul." 

"The  new  minister  possesses  the  last;  it 
seemed  to  me  he  filled  the  whole  church  with  an 
aura  of  religious  intensity.  He  impressed  all, 
even  the  most  fashionable  and  worldly." 

"That  is  because  all  great  art  is  a  psychic 
effusion." 


52    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

They  ceased  speaking  for  a  time.  Then  the 
broker  said: 

"A  word  is  but  a  spark  of  light;  a  fine  sentence 
is  a  thought  made  radiant.  A  splendid  sermon 
is  to  a  congregation  what  the  rays  of  the  sun  are 
to  the  things  of  the  earth.  Plants  grow  aided  by 
rain  and  sunshine;  souls  develop  under  discipline 
and  the  right  words  spoken  at  the  right  time.  The 
new  minister  began  his  sermon  in  a  sort  of  gloom ; 
the  clouds  gathered,  and  at  the  right  moment 
the  rain  descended,  with  interludes  of  sunshine 
to  let  us  see  that  the  sun  exists  above  the  clouds, 
and  that  religious  happiness  is  not  an  illusion." 

"Because  people  were  never  so  fed  up  on 
worldly  illusions  as  they  are  to-day,  and  I  fear 
we  are  stall-fed  optimists  ready  for  the  slaughter. 
We  have  Hstened  too  long  to  empirics  who  come 
and  feel  our  pulse,  look  at  our  tongue,  and  then 
tell  us,  with  a  nonchalant  air,  that  nothing  ails 
us  but  a  passing  indigestion,  advise  us  to  go  for  a 
trip  to  the  country  or  to  take  a  long  sea  voyage." 

"I  am  not  sure  but  that  an  age  of  optimism  is 
not  an  age  given  over  to  pleasure,"  said  the  other. 

"Many  people  are  optimists  from  intellectual 
conceit.  Pride,  ignorance,  and  vanity  are  at  the 
bottom  of  most  of  our  optimistic  pretensions, 
and  if  you  look  at  things  closely  you  will  soon  see 


THE  NEW   PREACHER        53 

how  most  of  our  so-called  religious  people  are 
in  exactly  the  same  fix  as  our  political  parties. 
Before  an  election  all  parties  are  bursting  with 
optimism,  pretending  to  be  happy.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  all  are  in  doubt,  many  in  a  state  of  fear. 
After  the  election  ask  your  poUtical  optimist  if 
he  is  happy!  The  bitter  irony!  Ask  your  fair- 
weather  church-goers  if  they  are  happy  on  the 
day  the  doctor  whispers  the  final  word  that  all 
is  over  with  them  —  no  more  illusion,  no  more 
flattery,  no  more  lying,  no  more  pleasure,  no 
more  hope.  Awful  hour!  When  the  optimistic 
catchwords  sound  as  hollow  as  the  cold  clods 
falling  on  a  coffin!" 

"  I  think  a  good  deal  of  the  trouble  arises  from 
the  fact  that  many  of  our  pulpits  are  occupied 
by  agnostics  who  are  groping  for  truth  just  like 
their  congregations.  Their  sermons  are  spiced 
with  Spiritism,  Theosophy,  and  mysticism,  and 
the  sauce  for  this  intellectual  pudding  is  called 
Christianity.  These  agnostics  oppose  nothing 
but  real  rehgion,  for  which  they  have  neither 
feeling  nor  understanding." 

"Stockbrokers  are  called  bulls  and  bears.  I 
regard  an  agnostic  in  a  pulpit  as  a  wolf  in  sheep's 
clothing;  no  grizzly  is  so  formidable  amidst  a 
wilderness  of  souls." 


54    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

''And  why?"  exclaimed  the  other.  "Because 
the  agnostic  could  not  hold  his  position  in  such 
a  church  six  months  if  he  did  not  flatter  the  divers 
opinions  and  beliefs  to  be  found  among  the  lead- 
ing members  of  his  congregation.  Such  a  minister 
must  be  ondoyant  and  correctly  vague,  innocently 
vacillating  and  plausibly  progressive,  believing 
in  everything,  secure  in  nothing.  As  soon  as  a 
preacher  pleases  all  the  members  of  a  cosmopoli- 
tan congregation  be  certain  you  are  dealing  with 
a  man  of  the  world  who  knows  how  to  lecture, 
but  cannot  preach." 

"I  make  no  profession  of  religion;  my  friends 
call  me  an  agnostic;  I  have  even  been  called  a 
materialist ;  and  when  I  go  to  church  it  is  for  the 
music.  But  I  have  never  deceived  myself.  I  do 
not  profess  to  be  spiritually  contented.  The  man 
who  is  to  influence  me  must,  first  of  all,  be  con- 
vinced and  contented  himself.  It  is  not  possible 
to  deceive  a  well-read  agnostic  for  long;  there  is 
nothing  he  respects  and  admires  so  much  as 
eloquent  speech  from  a  convinced  preacher, 
nothing  he  despises  more  than  a  man  of  learning 
who  pretends  to  know  more  than  the  agnostic. 
It  is  not  ignorance  we  despise;  it  is  false  claims  to 
knowledge.^' 

"But  was  there  ever  a  time  when  the  clubman 


THE  NEW  PREACHER        55 

and  the  millionaire,  the  fashionable  woman  and 
the  society  leader,  felt  so  near  moral  salvation 
without  feeling  certain  of  it?  " 

"It  all  results  from  the  absurd  notion  that  a 
man  ought  to  profess  a  spiritual  optimism  on  a 
level,  so  to  speak,  with  his  wealth  and  his  busi- 
ness capacity." 

"But  it  is  a  far  cry  from  the  bodily  ease  that 
affluence  provides  to  an  easy  conscience.  And, 
if  I  am  to  judge  by  my  own  feelings,  after  having 
made  a  fortune  of  several  millions  while  yet  a 
young  man,  I  can  say  with  some  assurance  that 
no  amount  of  luck  or  progressive  prosperity  will 
ever  compensate  for  the  lack  of  spiritual  repose. 
I  go  to  books  for  some  signs  of  enlightenment,  to 
Shakespeare,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Plato,  to  Emerson, 
but  a  living  orator  who  can  wrestle  with  the 
conscience  of  a  people  is  worth  more  than  books. 
He  comes  in  direct  contact  with  us,  we  feel  his  grip, 
we  admit  his  superior  force,  we  are  conquered, 
and  we  shake  hands  with  the  victor  as  a  friend." 

"There  are  two  classes  of  men  who  ought  to 
be  able  to  tell  us  what  ails  us  —  medical  men  and 
religious  ministers:  the  one  for  the  body,  the 
other  for  the  soul.  The  medical  man  succeeds 
fairly  well,  the  minister  fails  in  the  great  majority 
of  cases.     And  why?     Because  few  ministers  in 


56    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

our  day  feel  certain  they  possess  a  soul.  Negative 
themselves,  they  fail  to  bring  conviction  to 
others." 

"Besides  that,  I  see  a  grave  danger  to  the 
churches  in  presenting,  as  some  leaders  are  do- 
ing, the  subject  of  immortality  in  a  purely 
material  light.  In  their  efforts  to  prove  im- 
mortality they  have  created  in  the  minds  of  many 
worldly  people  an  atmosphere  of  security  that 
fringes  the  borders  of  every  selfish  vice.  I  once 
met  a  business  man  who  had  been  a  Congrega- 
tional minister  in  a  large  town.  Some  of  the 
leading  members  of  his  congregation  were  in- 
clined to  be  doubting  Thomases.  He  hit  on  the 
notion  that  a  series  of  sermons  based  on  psychical 
manifestations  as  proofs  of  the  soul's  survival 
would  be  just  the  thing  for  the  doubters.  He 
preached  for  four  Sundays  on  this  subject,  and  at 
the  close  of  the  series  had  the  doubters  so  well 
convinced  that  several  of  the  richest  ceased  to 
take  an  active  interest  in  religion.  They  no 
longer  feared  anything,  declaring  that  the  other 
world  being  just  like  this  one,  it  was  needless  to 
worry  about  the  soul's  future.  The  pastor  left 
the  ministry  for  a  business  career;  he  could  no 
longer  raise  the  necessary  funds  to  keep  the 
church  going." 


THE  NEW  PREACHER        57 

"Preachers  who  attempt  to  reduce  the  spiritual 
to  the  plane  of  the  material  must  always  fail.  It 
is  madness  to  convince  a  man  who  is  already  a 
lover  of  self  that  he  is  going  to  live  on  unchanged 
after  death.  Preachers  who  do  this  may  be  sin- 
cere, wise  they  are  not.  The  new  minister  we 
have  just  heard  is  not  one  of  these.  What  we 
want  to-day  is  not  the  grosser  proofs  of  immor- 
tality, but  the  finer,  more  spiritual  proofs.  We 
want  to  get  hold  of  the  true  feeling,  the  aspiration 
of  continued  spiritual  progress  —  I  hardly  know 
what  to  call  it.  I  should  be  sorry  to  think  that 
tilings  go  on  after  death  as  they  do  here;  it 
would  make  me  more  selfish  than  I  am  now." 

''And  that  brings  up  the  subject  of  charity  and 
utilitarianism." 

"What  in  reahty  is  the  thing  called  utili- 
tarianism?" 

"In  my  opinion,  it  is  a  multitude  of  sins  under 
a  cloak  of  wholesale  charity.  It  is  so  easy  to  give 
wholesale,  so  easy  to  order  things  by  the  gross, 
so  bothersome  to  handle  them  in  detail." 

"Is  not  mechanical  charity  an  insult  to  all  the 
recipients?" 

"It  is  charity  without  spiritual  sympathy,  it 
is  goodness  made  automatic,  virtue  made  hypo- 
critically vicious,  penny-in-the-slot   religion,  all 


58    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

the  more  dangerous  because  the  machine  works 
so  smoothly." 

"I  object  to  it  just  because  it  is  so  cheap," 
said  the  other  with  a  bitter  tone. 

''What  the  wealthy  utilitarian  lacks  is  senti- 
ment." 

"But  is  he  not  often  a  sentimentalist?" 

^'Sentiment  gives  distinction,  sentimentality  is 
as  crude  as  it  is  blind.  This  is  why  your  wealthy 
parvenu  gives  so  much  to  public  institutions. 
He  thinks  he  is  buying  distinction.  Note  that 
he  or  she  always  takes  care  to  give  to  something 
that  is,  or  will  be,  popular." 

"Don't  you  think  that  as  soon  as  the  whole- 
sale utilitarian  philanthropist  realises  that  giving 
to  public  institutions  is  a  sign  of  decadent  taste, 
to  say  nothing  about  judgment,  the  custom  will 
cease?" 

"The  custom  will  cease  as  soon  as  the  custom 
is  regarded  as  bad  form.  Society  has  placed  a 
ban  on  the  person  who  eats  with  a  knife  and 
drinks  wine  out  of  a  cup.  I  see  the  day  coming 
when  the  ostentatious  giver  will  have  no  place 
in  refined  social  circles." 

"And  this  brings  us  to  a  main  point:  the 
State  will  be  compelled  to  maintain  universities, 
hospitals,  libraries,  and  all  institutions  connected 


THE  NEW  PREACHER        59 

in  any  way  with  public  utility.  Individuals  will 
cease  to  be  utilitarians.  The  rich  will  turn  their 
attention  to  work  of  a  distinctly  private  nature. 
Struggling  men  and  women  of  talent  and  genius 
will  no  longer  be  objects  of  charity;  they  will  be 
sought  out  and  made  to  realise  that  their  efforts 
are  not  in  vain;  poets,  artists,  philosophers, 
scientists,  musicians,  preachers  with  a  gift  will 
no  longer  languish  in  obscurity.  The  gifted  will 
take  their  proper  place  in  the  world's  work;  they 
will  cease  to  be  the  tools  of  cunning  avarice  and 
high-handed  greed,  the  playthings  of  ignorance 
and  pretentious  fashion." 


REPUBLIC   OR  EMPIRE? 


SCENE:  A  private  room  in  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria  Hotel,  New  York.  Coffee  is  being 
served  after  a  sumptuous  dinner.  Persons  pres- 
ent: A  senator,  a  judge,  a  general,  an  ex-ambas- 
sador, an  episcopal  rector,  a  professor  of  history, 
a  professor  of  psychology,  a  multi-millionaire. 
They  had  come  together  to  welcome  home  the 
man  who  had  been  an  ambassador  only  a  short 
time  before,  and  after  some  speeches  the  company 
settled  down  to  the  ordinary  talk  of  the  evening. 

"It  is  a  great  and  moving  subject,"  remarked 
the  senator  (taldng  a  couple  of  whiffs  at  his  cigar), 
"a  very  great  subject.  When  you  pronounce  the 
word  Empire  in  a  country  like  ours  you  bring 
into  play  the  greatest  stops  of  the  organ;  you 
sound  the  trumpet  notes  of  heroism,  romance, 
and  adventure." 

"I  should  say,"  said  the  judge,  "it  includes 
much  more  than  that.  An  American  Empire 
would  involve  the  whole  world  in  its  meshes. 
Were  we  ruled  by  an  emperor,  not  only  all  the 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      6i 

present  social  factors  would  be  changed  in  our 
country,  but  Europe  and  Asia  would  be  involved 
in  the  progressive  changes,  the  flux  and  the  reflux 
of  political,  religious,  and  material  development." 

The  judge,  as  he  ceased  speaking,  extended  his 
arm,  eyed  his  cigar  with  deliberation,  brushed  the 
ashes  off  with  his  fat  little  finger,  while  every 
member  of  the  party  watched  him  as  if  he  were 
about  to  deliver  judgment  in  a  case  of  life  or 
death. 

The  judge  was  one  of  those  men  who  exert  a 
ponderable  influence  by  "heft."  He  was  a  polit- 
ical heavy-weight.  The  bulk  of  his  body  sus- 
tained and  balanced  his  words,  his  looks,  and 
his  gestures,  while  the  senator,  who  was  thinner 
and  taller,  was  a  physical  feather-weight,  whose 
muscles  were  in  his  brains,  and  whose  knock- 
downs were  in  his  arguments. 

There  was  a  pause,  as  there  usually  is  in  cases 
when  a  grave  question  has  been  suddenly  brought 
on  the  tapis,  and  the  listeners  are  taking  sound- 
ings in  the  shallows  of  their  own  ignorance.  Evi- 
dently, by  the  shifting  of  legs,  and  slight,  but 
significant,  clearings  of  the  throat,  most  of  the 
party  were  beginning  to  "sit  up." 

"Do  you  know,"  said  the  professor  of  psycho- 
logy, with  a  rather  serious  smile,  "I  always  think 


62    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

there  is  something  in  the  quality  of  the  wine 
that  decides  or  influences  these  after-dinner 
discussions."  To  which  the  ex-ambassador  re- 
pHed  good-humouredly:  "You  look  at  the  cham- 
pagne label  before  judging  the  import  of  the 
conversation." 

"We  have  been  drinking  Veuve  Clicquot  this 
evening,"  returned  the  professor,  "and  I  have 
little  fear  of  the  quality  of  the  conversation.  If 
we  are  going  to  discuss  the  question  of  an  emperor 
in  this  country  we  should  do  it  with  '  unmuddled 
heads.'" 

"And,  I  should  add,  with  strong  nerves,"  said 
the  senator. 

"It  takes  moral  courage  to  face  the  subject 
under  any  circumstances,"  retorted  the  judge. 

"Is  this  question  not  in  the  air?"  It  was  the 
professor  of  history  who  asked  the  question. 

"It  is  in  the  air,  but  not  yet  on  people's 
tongues,"  remarked  the  senator.  "We  require 
to  breathe  microbes  before  we  feel  their  effects; 
the  incubation  always  takes  time";  but  the  rector 
said,  "Now  that  this  question  has  been  brought 
frankly  before  us  I  am  reminded  that  a  good  many 
people  have  lately  been  feeling  Imperial  without 
knowing  just  how  to  describe  their  feelings." 

"Perhaps  the  time  has  come  to  diagnose  the 


REPUBLIC   OR  EMPIRE?      63 

S3nnptoms,"  put  in  the  psychologist.  "Is  it,  or 
is  it  not,  a  disease?" 

"You  touch  a  vital  point,"  chimed  in  the  judge. 
"It  would  be  impossible  to  over-rate  its  far-reach- 
ing importance.  If  it  is  a  disease,  everything  de- 
pends on  whether  it  is  'catching'  or  not." 

The  psychologist  now  spoke  with  much  anima- 
tion: "We  know  that  'fashion'  is  nothing  but 
the  working  of  one  imagination  on  the  mind  of 
another.  One  or  two  persons  fix  upon  a  certain 
fashion,  then  groups  begin  to  imitate  the  thing 
that  is  set  before  them,  after  which  the  pubHc  fall 
into  line,  and  no  one  questions  the  utility  or  the 
futility  of  the  fashion  imposed." 

"That  is  true,"  declared  the  senator;  "if  we 
are  destined  to  have  an  emperor  it  is  but  a  ques- 
tion of  who  begins  to  suggest  the  'Imperial' 
game  —  merely  a  question  of  time.  What  is  in 
the  heart  will  one  day  be  expressed  by  the  hand." 
He  suited  the  action  to  the  word  by  lighting  a 
fresh  cigar. 

"Not  long  ago,"  said  the  rector,  "I  heard  a 
clergyman  say  that  fully  eighty  per  cent  of  his 
congregation  were  secretly  ready  for  an  Empire." 
He  gave  a  furtive  glance  at  the  company. 

The  rector  despised  Democracy,  not  so  much 
because  he  thought  it  all  wrong,  but  because  his 


64    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

secret  inclinations  opposed  it.  With  him,  as 
with  the  class  he  represents,  Democracy  was  not 
so  much  a  thing  to  be  feared  as  a  thing  to  be 
shunned. 

As  for  Socialism,  he  would  as  soon  think  of 
learning  Chinese  as  of  reading  up  the  philosoph- 
ical and  economical  arguments  of  its  leaders. 
The  rector  stood  for  a  large  and  powerful  class 
that  rule  in  the  social  circles  of  New  York,  Balti- 
more, Philadelphia,  and  Boston.  His  class  stand 
for  the  letter  as  opposed  to  the  spirit,  the  form 
as  opposed  to  the  substance,  manner  opposed  to 
method.  In  their  eyes  the  Episcopal  Church  is 
a  barrier  against  what  they  deem  the  common  and 
the  vulgar.  In  America  it  is  the  only  symbol  of 
royalty  left  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Deep  down  in  the  bosom  of  all  good  Episcopalians 
there  remained,  and  there  still  remains,  the  secret 
sympathy  with  the  old  manners,  the  old  beliefs, 
the  old  social  habits  and  customs.  Between  the 
intellectual  Unitarians  of  New  England  and  the 
Episcopal  Church,  as  represented  in  cities  like 
Baltimore  and  Philadelphia,  there  is  the  differ- 
ence of  a  whole  world.  With  certain  Episcopa- 
lians aristocracy  has  much  to  do  with  class,  little 
to  do  with  intellect. 

"You  mean  to  say,"  remarked  the  ex-ambas- 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      65 

sador,  "they  are  weary  of  the  present  social  con- 
ditions; tired  of  doubt  and  that  chaotic  equahty 
which  nothing  seems  to  mollify,  and  that  they 
would  welcome  any  change  that  would  clear  the 
social  air." 

"It  would  take  a  mighty  big  thunderstorm  to 
do  that.  Our  country  is  big."  It  was  the  general 
who  spoke. 

"It  would  take  a  series  of  thimderstorms  that 
would  reach  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  and 
from  Chicago  to  New  Orleans,"  added  the  judge. 

"It  would  all  depend  on  the  actual  mood  of  the 
people,"  declared  the  senator,  "or  the  mood  of 
the  class  with  the  most  power." 

"And  these  woiild,  of  course,  be  influenced  by 
the  actug,l  political  and  social  conditions  of  the 
time.  It  is  a  complicated  subject,"  saying  which 
the  judge  leaned  back  in  his  easy-chair,  and  with 
a  grimace  in  which  his  mouth,  nose,  eyes,  and 
eyebrows  all  played  a  part,  he  slowly  puffed  a 
long  cloud  of  smoke  towards  the  ceiling;  and  again 
he  riveted  the  gaze  of  the  whole  company. 

The  ex-ambassador,  becoming  restless,  asked 
of  the  senator,  "What,  in  your  opinion,  is  the 
cause  of  a  people's  mood?" 

"A  nation's  moods  are  exactly  like  the  moods 
of  an  individual,"  he  replied,  with  a  nonchalance 


66    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

in  which  a  glow  of  nervous  energy  was  manifest 
from  the  deep  sockets  of  his  grey-blue  eyes.  "A 
nation  has  its  whims,  caprices,  humours,  like 
private  persons.  The  statesman  who  ignores  this 
simple  fact  is  a  man  who  has  not  mastered  the 
art  of  governing." 

"Fashions  again,"  said  the  professor  of  psy- 
chology. "The  need  of  change,  the  dislike  of  mo- 
notony, the  love  of  pomp  and  show  inherent  in 
all  human  nature,  the  same  spirit  that  creates  the 
fashions  creates  the  political  and  social  moods." 

"Action  and  reaction,"  said  the  judge,  iixing 
his  gaze  on  the  professor.  "Every  law  passed 
is  an  act  which  is  bound,  sooner  or  later,  to  pro- 
duce a  reaction  in  some  form.  Too  much  De- 
mocracy is  bound  to  produce  a  reaction  towards 
aristocracy;  too  much  aristocracy  is  bound  to 
revert  to  Republicanism,  as  in  France;  but  if 
France  ever  goes  to  war  with  Germany,  and  is 
beaten,  Germany  will  impose  a  Monarchy  on 
France,  and  that  will  be  her  reaction." 

"I  agree,"  said  the  professor  of  history,  "there 
is  nothing  else  in  the  world  on  which  we  can  safely 
reckon.  History  means  nothing  else.  In  1789 
French  Democracy  reacted  against  the  Monarchy; 
then  Bonaparte  caused  a  reaction  against  Democ- 
racy and  founded  an  Empire,  after  which  there 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      67 

was  a  reaction  in  favour  of  the  Monarchy,  which 
again  gave  place  to  the  rule  of  Napoleon,  after 
which  another  reaction  came  with  the  third 
RepubUc.  In  our  country  we  have  tipped  to  the 
see-saw  of  the  two  parties  —  the  Republicans  and 
the  Democrats." 

The  senator  moved  in  his  seat,  and,  raising  his 
eyebrows,  asked  in  a  voice  that  imphed  something 
more  than  the  ordinary,  "Do  you  not  concede  the 
reign  of  a  moral  law  in  all  this?" 

"There  is  no  chance,"  replied  the  professor  of 
psychology;  "there  must  be  law,  or  the  world 
would  go  to  pieces.  We  speak  of  anarchy  and 
chaos  because  these  loose  terms  suit  our  feelings 
and  manner  of  speech  for  the  time  being.  Pas- 
sion runs  away  with  reason,  but  after  the  event 
we  have  time  to  consider  and  weigh.  All  history, 
to  my  understanding,  is  but  the  working  out  of 
destiny,  and  nothing  that  philosophers  do  or  say 
ever  hinders  its  march.  We  are  ignorant  par- 
tisans watching  the  game  of  the  gods,  the  stu- 
pendous show  of  the  flux  and  reflux  of  cities, 
nations,  republics,  crowns,  and  empires." 

"I  wonder,"  said  the  professor  of  history,  "if 
people  w^ill  ever  consent  to  lead  the  simple 
life?" 

"We  might  as  well  ask  if  people  will  ever  be 


68    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

content  to  mind  their  own  business,"  said  the 
ex-ambassador,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  cold  blue 
eyes;  but  the  judge  caught  him  up  with  the  re- 
tort, "Sir,  an  ambassador  is  one  who  is  sent  to 
induce  other  nations  to  mind  their  own  business 
while  he  takes  advantage  of  their  absent-minded- 
ness by  attending  to  his  and  theirs  at  the  same 
time." 

The  rector  was  fascinated  by  the  look,  the  tone, 
and  the  solid  posture  of  the  judge,  as  weak  birds 
are  fascinated  by  the  sight  of  snakes;  and  he  was 
thinking  to  liimself  how  fine  it  would  sound  when 
in  the  Prayer  Book  on  Sunday  he  would  be  able 
to  read  the  prayer  for  the  preservation  of  his 
Imperial  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  the  two  Amer- 
icas instead  of  the  prayer  for  the  plain  President, 
which  always  sounds  flat,  especially  to  the  ears 
of  the  fashionable  female  members  of  his  Phila- 
delphia congregation  after  their  return  from  pro- 
tracted visits  to  England. 

As  for  the  general,  he  had  never  given  the  sub- 
ject any  thought,  being  a  practical  man  engaged 
in  the  common-sense  attitudes  of  civil  and  mili- 
tary government,  but  he  could  not  help  wondering 
how  he  would  look  seated  on  a  spanking  charger 
as  aide-de-camp  to  his  Imperial  Majesty,  and  he 
concluded  that  it  would,  to  say  the  very  least,  be 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      69 

exceedingly  picturesque  and  curiously  romantic; 
and  just  as  this  thought  was  passing  through 
his  mind  the  multi-millionaire  remarked,  with 
a  cynical  smile  which  harmonised  well  with  the 
utter  absence  of  any  sign  of  illusion  or  poetry  in 
the  expression  of  his  face,  "People  will  consent 
to  any  form  of  government  if  you  ensure  them 
three  full  meals  a  day  and  plenty  of  eye-show." 

But  the  senator  differed. 

"That,"  he  said,  "is  true  of  the  unlettered 
crowd,  but  in  this  country  there  is  the  religious 
element  to  count  with.  At  present  there  are 
only  two  vital  forces  in  America:  the  one  is 
finance,  the  other  is  the  churches.  The  first  rep- 
resents the  financial  attitude  of  cities  like  New 
York,  Chicago,  and  Pittsburg;  the  second  rep- 
resents the  sentiments  of  the  agricultural  popu- 
lation, the  country  towns,  the  small  dealers  and 
the  professional  classes  with  local  powers.  Some 
of  these  would  die  sooner  than  live  under  an 
Empire." 

"That  is  true,"  remarked  the  judge;  "but  all 
history  is  full  of  examples  of  sudden  changes  of 
government,  and  the  people  at  large  have  always 
acted  pretty  much  the  same.  What  can  people 
do  under  stress  of  power?  The  old  history  re- 
peats itself.    There  is  a  great  outcry  for  a  time. 


70    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Then  people  settle  down  after  getting  weary  of 
futile  opposition." 

The  general,  now  fairly  interested  in  the  sub- 
ject, remarked,  "An  American  Empire  would  be 
impossible  unless  it  included  all  South  America. 
If  we  ever  become  an  Empire  we  shall  be  a  great 
naval  power,  with  an  army  to  match  our  navy, 
and  we  should  repeat  in  the  two  Americas  what 
England  accomplished  in  India.  It  seems  won- 
derful when  we  think  of  it,  how  it  was  done." 

"What  makes  present  social  conditions  in 
America  so  interesting  is  the  unprecedented  com- 
plexity of  the  social,  political,  and  religious  ele- 
ments. It  is  futile  to  go  back  to  Athens  and 
Rome  for  parallels.  Never  in  history  have  the 
social  elements  been  so  mixed,  so  inextricably 
mixed."  The  professor  of  liistory  spoke  these 
words  with  intense  seriousness,  and  the  judge 
and  senator  were  about  to  reply  at  the  same  mo- 
ment; but  the  senator  rose  to  his  feet,  and  the 
company  saw  before  them  the  dominant  mind  of 
the  evening,  tall,  solemn,  with  a  presence  that 
some  would  describe  as  serenely  satanic  and  others 
as  serenely  Imperial,  and  as  he  loomed  above  the 
sitters  he  seemed  an  enigmatic  oracle  of  the  pres- 
ent and  a  prophet  of  the  immediate  future. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "I  agree  with  the  sen- 


REPUBLIC   OR  EMPIRE?       71 

timent  expressed  by  the  supreme  bard  of  the 
English-speaking  races  when  he  said,  'There  's  a 
divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,  rough  hew  them 
how  we  will.'" 

He  paused  here  to  give  the  company  time  to 
imbibe  all  they  possibly  could  of  that  mystical 
truth.    Then  he  continued: 

''By  these  words  the  poet  included  individuals, 
peoples,  countries,  nations,  and  empires.  He 
meant  them  to  apply  as  much  to  parties  as  to  men, 
as  much  to  politics  as  to  principles.  Meditate  on 
the  marvels  of  the  past,  think  of  Rome,  Carthage, 
the  invasion  of  the  Moors,  the  Spanish  conquest, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  apparition 
of  Bonaparte,  the  advent  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  freeing  of  the  slaves,  the  war  with  Spain,  the 
acquisition  of  the  Philippines,  the  imbroglio  with 
Japan,  the  incommensurable  theme  of  the  yellow 
race  wrenched  from  the  rock  of  Asia  to  be  cast 
before  us  as  a  token  of  defiance,  or  a  stimulus  to 
conquest,  and  then  tell  me  whether  you  are  sleep- 
ing or  waking;  whether  you  are  standing  on  the 
brink  of  a  precipice,  or  dreaming  in  a  fool's  para- 
dise of  transient  pleasures  and  ephemeral  passions. 
Gentlemen,  we  are  at  the  dawn  of  a  new  era.  We 
resemble  Columbus  and  his  crew  just  before  they 
sighted  the  shores  of  the  New  World.    The  tide 


72    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

of  Empire  is  rising.  Whither  will  it  land  us? 
When  it  recedes  will  it  carry  us  with  it  far  beyond 
the  islands  of  the  Pacific?  Will  it  sweep  us  on 
and  on  till  it  touches  the  shores  of  Eastern  Asia?  " 

It  would  be  difficult  to  depict  the  confhct  of 
sentiments,  hopes,  fears,  vague  desires,  and  slum- 
bering ambitions  evoked  by  the  senator's  startling 
and  enigmatical  outburst.  The  judge,  who  had 
been  quietly  puffing  at  his  cigar,  was  now  chewing 
its  stump,  and  his  face  showed  all  the  symptoms  of 
a  suppressed  and  suffocating  emotion.  The  gen- 
eral had  become  visibly  agitated  in  spite  of  his 
seeming  coolness  and  indifference,  while  the 
multi-millionaire,  his  round  face  flushed  with 
the  varying  emotions  of  the  discussion,  could 
hardly  keep  his  seat. 

"If  you  want  to  know  how  I  feel  about  it,  I 
can  tell  you,"  he  said,  the  wrinkles  between  his 
hard  grey  eyes  making  one  think  of  three  fur- 
rows in  a  field  of  thistles.  "It  is  a  question  of 
expediency.  If  the  financial  interests  of  the  coun- 
try are  better  served  by  Imperial  power,  then  let 
us  have  an  Empire  and  be  done  with  it.  I  have 
always  been  a  democrat.  Let  everything  go  by 
the  board  sooner  than  become  a  nation  of  money 
slaves  depending  on  Europe  for  supply  and  de- 
mand.   It  ain't  a  time  for  guess-work,  it 's  a  time 


REPUBLIC   OR   EMPIRE?       73 

for  action.  I  have  made  what  money  I  possess, 
but  I  want  more;  we  all  want  more;  we  want  to 
push  the  thing  clear  through  from  AustraUa  to 
China  and  Japan  and  from  there  to  the  Pole.  I 
don't  care  a  hang  who  leads  the  people.  Presi- 
dent or  emperor  won't  make  any  difference." 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  the  judge,  "it's  a  case 
of  hanging  our  banners  on  the  outer  walls." 

"For  the  cry  is  still  they  come,"  smiled  the  pro- 
fessor of  history. 

"And  you  can  take  my  word  for  it,"  added  the 
general,  "we  can  afford  to  let  'em  all  come." 

"We  have  been  doing  that  for  some  time,"  re- 
marked the  rector. 

"Assimilate  Republicans  and  Democrats,  Cath- 
oUcs  and  Protestants,  transmute  the  tendencies 
and  turn  all  into  a  rolHcking  Empire  headed  by  the 
strong  man,"  went  on  the  judge. 

Several  members  of  the  company  left  the  room, 
and  the  discussion  on  that  subject  was  at  an  end, 
but  not  the  thoughts  and  the  impressions.  More 
than  one  of  the  party  lay  awake  till  late  brooding 
over  the  portents  of  the  future  in  America,  in 
Europe,  in  Asia,  in  the  whole  world. 


74    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

II 

Scene:  A  library  in  a  Fifth  Avenue  mansion, 
New  York.  Tea  is  being  served.  Persons  pres- 
ent: A  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
a  governor  of  a  Western  State,  a  Social  Democrat, 
a  lawyer  from  Kentucky,  a  Trust  magnate,  a 
Christian  Socialist,  a  mining  millionaire. 

''There  are  times,"  said  the  bishop,  sipping  his 
tea,  "when  it  looks  as  if  we  were  being  pushed  or 
driven  by  some  inexorable  influence  not  properly 
belonging  to  our  people  as  free  political  agents  in 
a  country  where  instruction  has  for  years  been 
at  the  command  of  all.  I  can  well  remember  the 
ante-bellum  days.  The  character  of  the  people 
has  changed." 

"It  must  be  so,"  remarked  the  Trust  magnate; 
"all  new  countries  go  the  same  road." 

"Progress!"  ejaculated  the  lawyer. 

"That  word,  in  our  day,"  said  the  bishop,  "is 
void  of  religion  and  void  of  sentiment.  What  do 
they  mean  by  progress?" 

"The  betterment  of  all  classes,  particularly  the 
classes  that  have  for  ages  been  held  in  the  bond- 
age of  the  rich  and  the  strong,"  said  the  Social 
Democrat.  "So  long  as  the  people  suffer,  the 
discoveries  of  science  do  no  real  good  and  nothing 
really  matters." 


REPUBLIC   OR   EMPIRE?       75 

"A  nation  has  to  become  powerful  before  she 
can  help  herself,"  remarked  the  lawyer.  "A  na- 
tion that  is  playing  second  fiddle  can  never  pro- 
gress. Progress  begins  when  we  are  absolutely 
free  to  create  our  destiny." 

"We  are  a  sentimental  people  like  the  Eng- 
lish," said  the  Trust  magnate,  with  a  frown  that 
seemed  fixed  and  immovable;  he  wore  it  as  he 
wore  his  clean,  straight,  upper  hp  which  met  his 
lower  lip  like  a  carving-knife,  and  gave  to  his 
light-grey  eyes  the  trenchant  quality  for  which 
they  clamoured.  He  carved  his  phrases  from  the 
joints  of  the  argument  in  choppy  slices,  which 
often  passed  as  bonnes  houches  at  the  boards  of 
political  and  social  discussions,  and  he  reasoned, 
argued,  lived,  and  even  loved  in  the  "dry  light." 
"There  is  too  much  sentimental  vapour  in  the 
national  atmosphere,"  he  went  on;  "it  prevents 
us  from  seeing.  We  must  get  rid  of  poetry,  ma- 
laria, artists,  indigestion,  temperance,  and  wo- 
man's rights  before  we  become  a  nation." 

"Then  we  shall  never  become  a  nation,"  said 
the  bishop. 

"And  when  we  are  rid  of  dyspeptics,  artists, 
and  poets,  to  say  nothing  of  the  other  things," 
said  the  governor,  "apoplectics  will  take  their 
place.    Our  capitalists  are  even  now  in  the  apo- 


76    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

plectic  stage,  and  those  who  are  not  suffering 
from  a  rush  of  blood  to  the  head  have  symptoms 
of  water  on  the  brain."  He  spoke  with  his  ha- 
bitual good  humour,  and  the  bishop  replied  in  the 
same  mood:  "Better  water  on  the  brain  than 
whisky,  governor;  and  as  for  woman's  rights,  we 
have  to  thank  our  brave  women  for  what  progress 
we  have  made  in  the  drink  question.  The  sal- 
vation of  this  country  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
women." 

"As  for  drink,"  said  the  lawyer,  "it  works  two 
ways:  it  makes  some  people  de\dls  and  others 
angels  or  pet  lambs;  what  is  poison  for  devil  is 
sometimes  food  for  angel." 

He  spoke  from  the  depths  of  a  thick  dark  beard 
capped  by  a  bushy  moustache  which  gave  to  his 
small  bead-like  eyes  the  aspect  of  a  black  snake 
ensconced  in  a  crow's  nest.  His  attitude  was 
formidable.  The  lawyer  was  not  a  "  spell-binder," 
his  speech  was  too  laconic;  but  there  was  some- 
thing in  the  expression  of  his  eyes  which  put  a 
spell  on  weak-kneed  politicians  at  Washington 
and  sitters-on-the-fence  at  New  York.  His  very 
presence  in  a  committee-room  gave  sensitive 
people  a  feeling  of  "pin-feathers,"  while  others 
went  so  far  as  to  declare  he  was  Satan  unbound. 

The  Trust  magnate  listened  to  the  lawyer  and 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      77 

was  silent.  He  was  doing  his  best  to  get  at  the 
true  inwardness  of  this  man  who  was  li\dng  in 
the  "dry  Hght"  of  hard  fact  and  impersonal  logic, 
and  he  could  not  restrain  a  feeling  of  repugnance 
as  he  thought  to  himself:  "I  wonder  if  I  look 
as  mean  as  that."  Then  he  thought:  "Better 
look  like  the  devil  than  an  ineffectual  angel; 
American  economy  has  no  place  for  Christian 
doctrine." 

"You  can  cut  and  dry  apples  and  peaches  and 
find  them  very  good,"  remarked  the  governor, 
"but  you  can't  make  anything  out  of  human 
beings  by  the  cutting  and  drying  process." 

"There  is  no  better  way,"  said  the  bishop, 
"than  first  to  catch  your  sinner,  then  'convict' 
him,  then  convert  him.  This  was  the  way  of  the 
early  Methodists.  I  have  witnessed  thousands 
of  conversions  on  the  old  camp-meeting  grounds 
in  the  West  and  the  South.  I  am  opposed  to  force 
and  in  favour  of  argument,  persuasion,  and  con- 
version. This  nation  must  be  converted  back  to 
the  simple  old  customs  of  the  early  churches,  and 
all  this  outcry  about  a  Monarchy  or  an  Empire 
must  cease  or  we  shall  be  shortly  incorporated 
forcibly  in  some  sort  of  paganism." 

"Before  we  can  get  back  to  a  simpler  Kfe," 
said  the  Social  Democrat,  "we  must  first  deal 


78    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

with  material  things.  We  have  worried  too  long 
over  the  spirit.  The  spirit  will  take  care  of  itself 
once  the  body  is  set  free.  We  have  been  trying 
to  live  on  compromises,  and  we  become  leaner 
every  day." 

"But  the  fabric  must  have  a  solid  foundation," 
said  the  Christian  Socialist.  "The  thing  we  need 
is  Socialism  based,  not  on  mere  material  figures 
and  systems  of  government,  but  on  the  absolute 
rules  of  simple  Christian  teaching.  Socialism 
without  religion  would  be  as  a  rose  without  colour 
or  odour." 

"I  am  with  you  in  that,"  remarked  the  bishop. 
"When  it  comes  to  the  actual  fighting  time  all 
good  Methodists  will  take  sides  with  any  form  of 
Socialism  founded  on  the  Christ  spirit.  In  my 
opinion  we  shall  soon  be  called  on  to  take  sides, 
not  in  theory,  but  in  practice;  we  shall  soon  be 
forced  to  show  our  hand." 

"No  doubt  about  it,"  said  the  lawyer.  "We 
are  in  a  political  and  social  hot-house,  where  the 
heat  is  more  than  tropical  and  things  are  being 
forced  along  at  an  extraordinary  speed;  and  I 
don't  object  to  speed  myself.  Speed  is  a  stimu- 
lant to  mind  and  body.  The  quicker  we  get  away 
from  all  the  refuse  heaps  the  better.  We  have 
been  going  at  a  trot  of  sixty  miles  an  hour.    I 


REPUBLIC   OR  EMPIRE?       79 

should  like  to  see  it  changed  to  a  canter  of 
ninety." 

"You  would  empty  the  Imperial  quarts  into  a 
decanter,  eh?  and  let  all  taste  the  vertigo  of  life," 
said  the  Trust  magnate,  with  a  grin  that  hardened 
optimists  might  have  mistaken  for  a  smile. 

The  multi-milHonaire  gave  a  loud  guffaw  and 
said:  "See  that  you  fellows  take  a  return  ticket; 
after  you  've  had  enough  of  Empire  you  may  want 
to  get  back  to  a  Republic  " ;  to  which  the  governor 
replied:  "You  don't  mean  to  say  the  Imperial 
game  can  be  played  as  you  play  football?  If  ever 
we  get  an  Empire  it  will  come  to  stay;  there  won't 
be  any  ins  and  outs,  but  a  thing  the  whole  nation 
will  get  used  to  and  fight  for." 

"Gentlemen,"  remarked  the  bishop  bluntly, 
"there  will  be  no  Empire  without  .reckoning 
with  many  millions  of  Methodists,  Baptists, 
and  Congregationalists,  to  mention  only  three 
denominations." 

With  these  words  the  Social  Democrat  took 
from  his  pocket  a  recent  copy  of  the  Louisville 
Courier  Journal,  and  began  to  read  an  editorial 
by  the  editor.  Colonel  Henry  Watterson,  one  of 
the  great  editors  of  the  world. 

The  governor  straightened  himself  in  his  seat 
and  exclaimed:  "I  find  it  amazing  that  a  great 


8o    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

editor  should  have  to  ask  the  question,  'Is 
Representative  Government  in  America  a 
failure?'" 

"Governor,"  said  the  lawyer,  "you  seem  to 
talk  as  if  you  were  amazed  for  the  first  time;  I 
have  not  known  what  it  is  to  be  amazed  since  I 
was  a  boy  of  fifteen.  When  we  are  surprised  it 
shows  that  we  have  not  profited  by  experience; 
a  man  who  is  overtaken  by  surprise  is,  in  my 
opinion,  a  man  who  is  at  the  mercy  of  any  inci- 
dent that  may  happen  at  any  time  anywhere.  A 
successful  man  in  our  day  should  be  ready  for 
anything.  To  feel  surprise  is  sufficient  proof  that 
you  are  not  ready." 

"A  man  who  is  learning  every  day  is  not  yet 
ready  for  effective  action,"  said  the  Trust  mag- 
nate. "The  successful  man  in  these  days  is  the 
man  who  has  ceased  to  fear." 

"It  is  all  a  matter  of  knowing  human  nature," 
remarked  the  mining  millionaire.  "Human  na- 
ture never  changes,"  he  went  on,  with  a  broad 
and  self-satisfied  smile.  "The  poor  man  com- 
plains, but  if  the  poor  man  was  in  our  place  he 
would  feel  just  as  we  do;  he  would  want  more,  and 
be  bound  to  get  it  if  he  could.  If  we  millionaires 
know  how  to  stick  to  our  guns  it  is  because  we 
imderstand.    And  besides  that,  there  is  something 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      8i 

in  the  nature  of  things  that  makes  people  what 
they  are." 

"Do  you  mean  to  say,"  asked  the  bishop, 
"  that  millionaires  are  predestined  to  be  what  they 
are,  and  that  they  follow  a  sort  of  divine  law?" 

"Well,  yes,  if  you  like  to  consider  it  that  way. 
The  big  millionaires  of  our  time  occupy  the  place 
the  kings  used  to  occupy.  In  these  days  we  give 
the  orders  and  the  crowned  heads  obey,"  saying 
which  the  mining  king  broadened  his  smile  to  an 
extraordinary  degree  and  in  a  manner  not  to  be 
described,  it  was  so  bland,  so  self-confident,  so 
all-embracing. 

"Things  have  shifted,"  remarked  the  lawyer 
drily.  "The  power  once  vested  in  princes  ^nd 
crowned  heads  is  now  vested  in  commerce  and 
speculation.  Diplomacy  is  now  in  the  hands  of 
the  manipulators  of  cotton,  wheat,  town-planning, 
trust-building,  irrigation  schemes,  and  railroad 
management;  and  to  these  things  will  soon  be 
added  ship-building  and  a  vast  commerce  with 
Asia  and  South  America.  The  political  diplomat 
has  been  forced  into  a  back  seat.  Every  move 
of  the  diplomat  is  made  at  the  dictates  of  the 
money  market.     State-craft  is  money-craft." 

"Because  we  are  mostly  in  the  hands  of  Satan, 
and  we  are  nearing  the  hour  spoken  of  by  the 


82    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

prophets,"  said  the  bishop.  "The  descent  has 
been  rapid,  but  the  awakening  will  appal  by  its 
suddenness.  The  first  will  be  last  and  the  last 
will  be  first;  America  is  not  ruled  by  the  people, 
but  by  Mammon.  The  people  are  being  deceived, 
not  by  sentiment  but  by  the  policy  of  money 
grubbers.  God  Almighty  has  willed  two  sorts  of 
government  for  the  human  race:  government  by 
light  and  government  by  darkness.  The  worst 
things  live  in  the  dark.  It  is  much  easier  to  live 
according  to  impulse  and  passion  than  it  is  to  live 
controlled  by  wisdom.  The  Greeks  began  to  de- 
cline as  soon  as  they  sought  to  make  worldly 
knowledge  take  the  place  of  the  laws  of  the  spirit 
and  the  simple  life.  Knowledge  alone  is  the  most 
dangerous  thing  man  can  handle.  We  in  America, 
as  well  as  the  English,  are  suffering  in  the  bonds  of 
worldly  knowledge,  and  our  learning  and  our 
science  are  cheap  substitutes  for  wisdom.  Science 
is  still  a  mystery  which  has  explained  nothing 
that  is  of  any  vital  importance  to  the  human  soul. 
It  can  never  be  made  to  explain  the  beginning  of 
things,  neither  can  it  explain  any  end.  People 
who  live  under  the  authority  of  science  may  learn 
how  to  destroy  microbes  and  build  wonderful 
machines  of  destruction,  but  under  this  rule  we 
are  growing  more  barbarous,  more  arrogant,  more 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      St, 

restless  and  discontented.  We  borrow  all  the  old 
vices  of  the  old  countries  without  the  seeming 
contentment  and  repose  of  the  older  peoples. 
We  have  got  rid  of  the  idea  of  equality  since  our 
rich  people  consider  themselves  better  than  the 
others,  and  learned  men  obtain  no  footing  in  our 
leading  social  circles. 

"When  you  millionaires  visit  the  old  country 
you  are  tolerated  because  of  the  money  you  fling 
about  to  the  servants  of  the  nobility,  and  because 
of  various  other  things  all  toucliing  on  the  fatness 
of  your  pocket-book.  You  are  too  blind,  your 
heads  are  too  swollen  for  you  to  feel  your  position, 
to  realise  your  humiliation.  As  for  the  feeling 
of  patriotism,  you  have  lost  that.  The  words 
democrat  and  republican  mean  with  you  not  love 
of  home  and  country,  but  love  of  money,  worldly 
power,  and  the  perquisites  of  Mammon.  We 
were  at  one  time  used  to  the  comforts  of  a  free 
and  sober  people,  but  now  we  are  used  to  the 
luxuries  and  the  licence  which  rapacious  idleness 
and  vacuous  ambitions  bring,  and  there  are  no 
signs  of  any  decrease  in  the  luxurious  expenditure. 
On  the  contrary,  the  spirit  of  extravagance  is 
manifest  everywhere  in  all  parts  of  the  land.  Your 
boasted  equality  is  a  sham.  You  refuse  to  meet 
a  man  on  his  merits.    You  fear  the  few  people  who 


84    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

are  still  left  who  have  the  moral  courage  to  tell 
you  your  \'ices;  and  this  is  but  natural,  since  you 
think  that  money  ought  to  be  made  to  atone  for 
wickedness  in  any  shape;  but  in  the  day  of  reck- 
oning there  will  be  no  atonement." 

Here  the  bishop  fixed  his  look  on  the  Trust 
magnate:  "Your  evil  deeds  will  live  after  you. 
Nothing  you  can  do  on  your  death-bed  will  atone 
for  the  evil  example  you  set  now.  There  will  be 
retribution,  and  your  children  and  your  chil- 
dren's children  will  feel  the  yoke  of  your  evil  do- 
ings. You  talk  lightly  of  Empire,  and  consider 
that  nothing  matters  as  to  the  form  of  govern- 
ment we  Hve  under  so  long  as  you  amass  wealth, 
and  you  seem  to  be  willing  to  welcome  any  change 
of  government  that  will  promise  still  more  licence. 
This  is  all  very  natural.  You  have  been  on  the 
down  grade  so  long  that  it  is  only  natural  you 
should  hasten  to  touch  bottom.  In  my  opinion 
you  will,  before  long,  receive  an  impetus  in  your 
journey  towards  catastrophe.  You  hve  in  palaces 
which  will  prove  no  refuge  in  the  hour  of  danger 
and  distress;  for  in  that  hour  the  poor  will  not 
pity  you,  and  the  people  of  your  own  class  will  be 
too  occupied  in  looking  to  their  own  separate  and 
individual  interests  to  care  a  fig  what  becomes 
of  the  others.    You  will,  sir,  when  the  hour  of 


REPUBLIC   OR  EMPIRE?      85 

judgment  strikes,  find  that  your  friends  the 
millionaires,  who  now  show  no  pity  or  love  for 
people  in  humbler  walks,  will  show  no  pity  or  love 
for  you  and  yours.  Judgment  will  compass  you 
with  the  force  of  a  tidal  wave,  and  although  you 
may  purchase  your  ransom  for  a  time  your  gold 
will  fail  to  bring  you  to  your  freedom." 

The  bishop's  words  came  with  such  unexpected 
force  that  no  one  could  find  a  reply.  His  remarks 
illuminated  the  minds  of  the  company,  and  at 
the  same  time  closed  their  mouths.  The  Trust 
magnate,  his  vanity  stung  to  the  quick,  looked  at 
the  mining  milhonaire  and  hoped  he  would  off-set 
the  bishop's  words  by  one  of  his  cool,  happy-go- 
lucky  observations  that  usually  came  to  him  with 
such  ease,  but  the  mining  millionaire  had  wilted 
in  his  seat.  He  felt  like  a  guilty  one  in  a  court  of 
justice.  He  felt  that,  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  judgment  had  been  pronounced  in  his  case. 
The  Trust  magnate  felt  as  if  he  would  sufifocate 
if  he  sat  in  that  room  for  another  five  minutes, 
and  just  in  the  nick  of  time  the  governor  turned 
the  talk  to  another  subject  and  the  bishop  rose 
to  go.  The  Christian  Sociahst  remarked  to  the 
bishop:  "If  our  preachers  would  preach  as  you 
have  talked  this  evening  how  much  better  people 
would  be." 


86    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

III 

Scene:  A  palatial  mansion  near  Central  Park, 
New  York.    It  is  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

The  Marquis  of  Roehampton  is  seated  in  a  room 
which  suggests  to  him  the  aspect  of  an  audi- 
ence chamber.  There  is  a  canopy  under  which 
stands  a  large  chair  carved  in  figures  which  sym- 
bolise royalty.  The  room  is  in  fact  half  throne- 
room,  half  salon,  and  the  objects  in  it  represent 
a  large  fortune.  As  the  Marquis,  son  and  heir  of 
the  Duke  of  Ballywick,  sits  musing,  he  asks  him- 
self what  sort  of  a  dress  the  hostess  would  appear 
in  to-day.  He  had  seen  her  many  times,  but  never 
twice  in  the  same  dress.  The  Duke  and  the 
Duchess  were  urging  him  on  to  marry  this  woman, 
the  possessor  of  so  much  money  that  no  one  could 
say  within  twenty  or  thirty  million  dollars  what 
her  fortune  was.  He  felt  that  he  was  beginning 
to  appear  ridiculous.  He  was  half  in  love  with 
the  woman  he  had  been  courting  for  more  than  a 
year,  yet  he  feared  her  as  a  human  enigma  who 
might  turn  out  to  be  a  minx  as  well  as  a  sphinx, 
and  he  was  beginning  to  feel  worried  as  well  as 
interested. 

With  these  thoughts  rushing  through  his  brain 
the  hostess  made  her  appearance. 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      87 

She  was  seven-and-twenty.  Her  eyes  looked 
very  dark  under  her  dark  and  rather  thick  eye- 
brows, and  her  olive  complexion  never  showed  the 
slightest  trace  of  colour,  no  matter  what  the  ex- 
citement of  the  moment  might  be.  She  was  tall, 
her  figure  was  well-proportioned,  but  she  had  prac- 
tised certain  movements  and  attitudes  so  long 
before  the  looking-glass  that  she  often  appeared 
theatrical  and  self-conscious,  and  self-conscious- 
ness was  the  thing  above  all  others  she  most 
dreaded.  She  was,  in  fact,  suffering  from  a  com- 
plaint quite  frequent  in  the  society  in  which  she 
moved,  a  complaint  which  might  be  described  as 
the  disease  of  the  "ever  present."  She  had  not 
yet  invented  a  way  of  escaping  from  herself. 
Night  and  day  she  was  haunted,  not  by  spirits 
freed  from  the  flesh,  but  by  her  own  spirit  im- 
prisoned in  her  own  body. 

The  hostess  was  arrayed  in  the  strangest  orien- 
tal costume  the  Marquis  had  ever  laid  his  expe- 
rienced and  much-travelled  eyes  on.  It  was  a 
combination  of  Turk,  Persian,  and  Hindoo,  and 
on  her  head  rose  a  turban  head-dress  in  the  form 
of  a  pyramid  festooned  with  ropes  of  black  pearls. 
She  advanced  towards  the  Marquis  with  a  forced 
air  of  languor  and  indifference,  and  held  out  her 
hand  for  the  Marquis  to  kiss.    This  he  did,  saying 


88    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

to  himself  what  an  idiotic  attitude  for  an  Eng- 
lishman, the  colour  mounting  to  his  cheeks  as 
he  thought:  "That  petty  German  prince  and  that 
poor  French  duke  in  search  of  a  situation  have 
taught  her  this  trick!" 

"How  perfectly  radiant  you  look  to-day!"  he 
said. 

The  words  coming  to  her  at  the  moment  they 
did,  and  in  that  peculiar  condition  of  airs  and 
elements,  the  hostess  forced  her  mouth  into  one 
of  those  hard,  mechanical  smiles  which  she  felt 
must  resemble  a  hideous  grin,  but  on  the  instant 
her  face  relaxed  into  its  natural  expression,  which 
was  one  of  restlessness  and  a  vague  ill-defined 
ambition,  embedded  as  it  was  in  a  foundation  of 
hereditary  ennui.  As  a  girl  she  had  never 
laughed,  and  as  a  woman  she  could  not  smile. 

To-day  the  hostess  had  decided  to  lay  the  law 
down  to  the  Marquis.  It  was  useless  for  a  woman 
in  her  unique  position  to  mince  matters  with 
anyone,  and  after  the  Marquis  had  for  the  twen- 
tieth time  broached  the  question  of  marriage,  she 
said:  "I  shall  never  marry  you  unless  you  consent 
to  sign  a  written  agreement  that  I  shall  be  ap- 
pointed the  leading  lady  of  honour  to  the  Queen 
of  England.  American  girls  who  marry  English 
lords  are  in  my  opinion  no  better  off  than  they 


REPUBLIC   OR   EMPIRE?      89 

were  in  America.  If  I  marry  you  I  shall  renounce 
forever  all  connection  with  Republicanism";  but 
just  as  the  hostess  uttered  these  words,  and  the 
Marquis  had  made  up  his  mind  to  bring  the  ab- 
surd courtship  to  an  end  and  return  to  England, 
a  butler,  with  a  pompous  mien  and  a  stentorian 
voice,  announced  His  Royal  Highness  the  Due  de 
Bordeaux,  and  in  walked  a  spruce  young  man, 
whose  age  was  about  that  of  the  hostess. 

The  Marquis  took  his  leave,  and  the  Due  de 
Bordeaux,  after  having  kissed  hands  in  the  most 
courtly  manner,  found  himself  enveloped  in  the 
meshes  of  political  and  social  intrigue. 

The  hostess  was,  after  all,  getting  somewhat 
bored  with  the  same  mechanical  compliments 
uttered  day  after  day,  and  the  Frenchman  was 
too  subtle  a  judge  of  human  nature  not  to  know 
when  to  desist.  "I  have  good  reasons  for  believ- 
ing there  will  soon  be  a  return  of  the  Monarchy 
in  France,"  he  began.  "The  Republicans  are 
growing  weak,  and  the  Socialists  are  threatening 
landed  proprietors  with  utter  ruin,  and  our  cause 
never  looked  so  bright.  If  you  will  marry  me  and 
bring  your  great  fortune  to  bear  on  the  political 
situation  in  Paris  we  shall  have  a  restoration  of 
the  Monarchy  within  two  years.  Nothing  can 
resist  the  power  of  such  a  fortune  as  yours." 


go    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Here  the  Due  named  the  journals  in  France 
which  he  knew  could  be  subsidised  in  favour  of 
the  cause,  and  the  hostess  listened  with  all  the 
sang-froid  at  her  command.  She  looked  coolly  at 
the  Due  for  some  time,  and  at  last  she  said: 
"What  you  say  of  France  fits  America  about  this 
time.  I  hear  that  in  this  country  people  are  grow- 
ing tired  of  Republicanism,  and  the  Democrats 
are  weary  of  Democracy."  But  the  Frenchman, 
reading  her  thoughts,  cut  short  her  remarks:  "In 
America  you  have  to  create  a  Monarchy  or  an 
Empire,  while  we  in  France  have  a  Monarchy  and 
an  Empire  ready  and  waiting.  We  have  the  titled 
aristocrats  to  give  the  proper  social  atmosphere 
to  the  throne.  If  you  wait  for  an  Empire  in  Amer- 
ica you  may  wait  a  lifetime,  and  even  then  — " 

"Well,  I  don't  know  about  that,"  she  replied. 
"I  prefer  being  a  princess  in  my  own  country  in 
my  own  right  to  being  a  titled  woman  in  Europe 
just  because  my  husband  possesses  a  title.  I 
prefer  being  original.  My  French  coiffeur  told 
me  this  morning  that  I  shall  look  young  at  forty. 
If  we  become  an  Empire  I  shall  be  created  an 
Imperial  princess  in  my  own  right,  and  I  shall  set 
up  a  court  in  Washington.  I  don't  know  but 
what  I  shall  wait  ten  or  twelve  years  and  see. 
The  other  day  a  senator  told  me  the  fear  of  So- 


REPUBLIC  OR  EMPIRE?      91 

cialism  is  so  great  that  the  millionaires  will  plan 
to  bring  about  a  coup  d'etat  in  America.  They 
will  stand  anything  but  a  SociaHstic  Republic." 

The  Due  replied:  "If  you  become  the  Duchesse 
de  Bordeaux  and  the  French  Monarchy  is  re-es- 
tablished, I  can  promise  you  the  position  of  first 
lady  at  the  French  Court.  With  my  social  po- 
sition and  your  fortune  you  will  be  without  a 
rival.  Should  the  king  die  I  shall  occupy  the 
throne  and  you  will  be  Queen  of  France." 

"  How  delightful!"  thought  the  hostess  to  her- 
self, image  after  image  whirling  through  her  brain. 
She  was  for  the  moment  intoxicated  with  the 
illusions  of  the  actual  situation,  with  these  arch- 
aristocrats  kissing  her  hand,  and  the  prospect  of 
one  day  being  Queen  of  France,  and  in  the  mad 
wave  of  cerebral  excitement  and  neurasthenic 
folly  she  forgot  the  spruce,  unkingly-looking 
Frenchman  seated  before  her,  and,  although  she 
seemed  to  be  gazing  straight  at  him,  she  was 
seeing  herself  in  a  royal  mirror  of  the  future,  and 
she  thought:  "Only  by  being  a  queen  seated  on  a 
throne  can  I  ever  get  even  with  these  New  York 
women.  Oh,  to  see  them  walk  before  me,  bowing 
low  while  I  sit  on  the  throne,  just  as  I  had  to  do 
when  I  was  presented  to  Queen  Alexandra !  What 
a  memory  it  would  be  to  humble  that  pretentious 


92    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

young  upstart  who  has  just  married  two  hundred 
miUions,  and  that  old,  false  goddess  who  expects 
the  four  hundred  to  do  salaams  before  her  altar ! 
I  '11  show  them  some  day  what  I  think  of  a 
Republic." 

In  the  midst  of  such  thoughts  in  walked  a 
banker's  wife  and  her  daughter  —  the  daughter 
a  languid  blonde  with  the  manner  and  look  of  a 
young  woman  of  intellectual  distinction  and  aris- 
tocratic tastes.  The  banker's  wife  belonged  by 
nature  to  the  money  set,  and  could  not,  to  save 
her  life,  keep  out  of  it;  but  her  daughter's  tastes 
would  have  led  her  elsewhere  had  she  been  free 
to  lead  the  kind  of  life  she  preferred.  Every 
movement  the  young  woman  made  was  easy  and 
natural,  and  every  word  she  uttered  was  the 
simple  expression  of  her  unaffected  thought. 
Looking  at  her  the  hostess  said  to  herself:  "I 
shall  never  succeed  in  walking  and  talking  in  her 
manner,"  and  she  admired  and  envied  her  for 
the  aristocratic  airs  which  the  banker's  daughter 
did  not  even  know  she  possessed. 

These  two  visitors  were  quickly  followed  by 
others.  There  was  the  elderly  wife  of  a  Trust 
magnate,  whose  sharp  features,  keen  grey  eyes, 
and  remorseless  social  ambition  filled  the  hostess 
with  so  much  secret  resentment .    She  had  a  tongue 


REPUBLIC   OR  EMPIRE?      93 

as  sharp  as  her  features,  and  often  let  it  wag  as  it 
would,  regardless  of  consequences.  The  other 
women  were  more  afraid  of  her  tongue  than  her 
husband's  vast  wealth,  yet  the  hostess  could  buy 
and  sell  them  all.  Then  came  the  young  and 
beautiful  wife  of  a  great  land  magnate,  frivolous, 
gay,  irresponsible,  dashing,  voluble.  This  was 
one  of  the  ladies  most  disliked  by  the  hostess, 
for  she  never  seemed  to  pay  her  sufficient  atten- 
tion. This  young  person  took  nothing  seriously. 
She  did  not  seem  surprised  at  the  outre  costume 
of  the  hostess,  and  did  not  remark  upon  it;  but 
the  elderly  woman  had  exclaimed:  "Why,  you 
look  for  all  the  world  like  the  sultan's  favourite! 
Where  did  you  find  that  wonderful  head-dress?" 

"Oh!  those  black  pearls!"  exclaimed  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  millionaire  senator,  who  had  just  arrived 
with  her  mother,  a  stately  woman  with  a  long, 
serious  face,  a  long  neck,  and  long,  slender  figure. 
What  a  power  she  would  have  been  had  her  cul- 
ture equalled  her  dignity!  At  least,  that  is  what 
the  aristocratic  blonde  always  thought  when  she 
looked  at  the  senator's  wife. 

The  wife  of  a  governor  arrived,  followed  by  a 
woman  with  grey  hair,  and  looking  ten  years 
older  than  her  real  age.  The  governor's  wife  was 
fat,  fair,  and  fifty.    She  lived  in  perpetual  good- 


94    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

humour,  with  the  tap  of  contentment  turned  on 
from  what  seemed  a  mountain  of  physical  strength 
and  social  prosperity,  and  if  she  had  any  tears  in 
her  composition  she  kept  them  well  corked  up 
for  private  use. 

As  for  the  visitor  with  grey  hair,  she  was  a 
small,  quiet  woman,  the  wife  of  a  railway  mag- 
nate, who  did  not  realise  why  she  existed.  She, 
like  her  husband,  possessed  things,  saw  things, 
touched  things,  tasted  things,  did  things,  and 
sometimes  said  things,  without  understanding 
anything.  She  lived  by  the  hour;  never  thought 
of  the  past  and  never  reflected  on  the  future. 
Once,  when  reading  a  simple  novel,  she  tapped 
herself  to  see  if  she  were  actually  alive;  for  the 
moment  she  had  forgotten  where  or  what  she  was. 

On  entering,  the  governor's  wife  cried  out: 
"Just  think.  Lord  Roehampton  sails  for  England 
to-morrow  on  the  Lusitania ! " 

"To-morrow!"  exclaimed  the  young  wife  of 
the  mining  magnate.  "  Why,  he  promised  to  dine 
with  us  on  Friday!" 

The  visitors  soon  separated  into  small  groups. 
The  wife  of  the  Trust  magnate  was  seated  on  a 
divan  with  the  wife  of  the  governor,  and  the  first 
lady  remarked:  "What  a  whim!  Where  did  she 
get  the  idea  of  that  turban  or  whatever  you 


REPUBLIC  OR   EMPIRE?       95 

might  call  it?  I  suppose  she  is  beginning  to 
think  we  ought  to  cough  when  she  sneezes." 

The  fat  lady  gave  one  of  her  chuckling  laughs 
and  said:  "If  she  expects  us  to  cough  every  time 
she  sneezes  we  shall  all  have  consumption;  you 
know  she  has  influenza  three  times  a  year." 

"Then  we  '11  have  to  come  to  grippes  with  her," 
said  the  other. 

The  fat  lady  laughed  again,  this  time  louder 
and  longer  than  before,  for  the  face  of  the  elder 
woman  had  that  serio-comic  look  which  always 
provokes  hilarity,  and  for  a  moment  she  feared 
she  would  end  in  a  fit  of  laughing  hysterics. 

At  that  very  moment  the  banker's  wife,  who 
was  seated  beside  the  wife  of  the  railway  magnate, 
was  discussing  the  political  outlook  as  affecting 
the  money-market  and  the  railroads,  saying: 
"My  husband  thinks  we  shall  have  a  change  in 
our  form  of  government  one  of  these  days;  he 
says  there  will  be  a  great  crash  and  then  everyone 
will  demand  some  kind  of  a  dictator  to  put  things 
to  rights";  but  the  wife  of  the  railway  magnate 
smiled  mechanically,  and  replied  with  her  usual 
mechanical  platitudes.  It  was  all  one  to  her. 
She  had  never  felt  maternal  instinct,  never  ex- 
perienced a  feeling  of  patriotism,  and  nothing 
mattered.    And  while  this  talk  was  going  on  the 


96    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

stately  wife  of  the  senator  took  a  seat  beside 
the  banker's  wife  and  the  wife  of  the  Trust 
magnate. 

The  Due  had  taken  his  leave,  and  gossip  was 
now  the  order  of  the  moment. 

"I  beheve  she's  given  him  his  conge^''  said 
the  banker's  wife. 

"I  presume  she  has,"  said  the  wife  of  the  sen- 
ator.   "She  usually  does." 

"In  my  opinion,"  said  the  Trust  magnate's 
wife,  "she  is  Ukely  to  lead  them  all  a  pretty  chase 
for  a  while.  I  have  just  seen  Doctor  X,  and  he 
inquired  particularly  about  our  hostess.  You 
know  what  an  expert  he  is  in  cases  of  neuras- 
thenia. He  says  we  are  becoming  a  class  of 
nervous  subjects — " 

"Not  responsible  for  our  actions,"  added  the 
senator's  wife,  without  waiting  for  the  other  to 
finish. 

The  wife  of  the  Trust  magnate  simply  closed 
her  eyes  and  deliberately  and  slowly  nodded  her 
head  twice,  without  uttering  a  word. 

"Well,"  said  the  banker's  wife,  "I  never  felt 
better  in  my  life.  I  always  thought  the  men  were 
more  subject  to  nervous  breakdowns;  they  have 
the  most  worry." 

"Worry!"  exclaimed  the  wife  of  the  Trust 


REPUBLIC   OR   EMPIRE?      97 

magnate.  "There  isn't  a  business-man  in  New 
York  to-day  who  feels  as  worried  as  our  hostess. 
To-day  she  looks  Uke  a  museum  freak  with  that 
impossible  headgear.  Where  did  she  get  the 
idea?" 

"My  husband  says  it's  the  Imperial  mania," 
chimed  in  the  banker's  wife.  "Once  bitten  there 
is  no  cure." 

"Who  was  the  mad  dog  here?"  asked  the  sen- 
ator's wife,  in  allusion  to  the  hostess. 

"  She  has  had  two  bites,  one  by  an  English  bull 
and  another  by  a  French  poodle,"  replied  the 
wife  of  the  Trust  magnate;  "and  of  the  two  the 
poodle  has  the  worst  virus." 

"And  the  worst  of  it  is,"  said  the  senator's 
wife,  "  there  is  n't  a  man  in  America  who  can 
counteract  the  poison.  We  fly  to  Europe  for 
everything.  Only  yesterday  I  was  talking  to  my 
daughter  about  the  creation  of  a  Uterary  salon. 
She  asked  me  to  give  her  carte-blanche  in  the 
matter.  I  have  given  my  consent,  and  her  father 
will  give  her  a  million  to  start  with." 

The  senator's  daughter  and  the  daughter  of 
the  banker  were  now  seated  together  in  a  corner, 
and  the  first  said:  "I  don't  care  how  soon  we  get 
an  Empire;  even  my  father  thinks  that  culture 
cannot  exist  under  a  Democracy.     Everything 


98    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

is  tainted  with  money.  Society  is  becoming 
intolerable." 

The  blonde  said:  "Next  winter  I'm  going  to 
begin  the  formation  of  a  salon  exclusively  for 
artists." 

"And  I  am  going  to  form  one  for  poets  and 
writers,"  said  the  other,  her  face  lit  up  with  a 
smile  as  serene  as  it  was  intelligent.  "You  know 
I  am  an  only  child,  and  my  father  says  I  shall  in- 
herit all  the  money  I  need  to  carry  on  the  work  I 
have  planned.  By  the  time  I  am  thirty  I  shall 
be  in  a  position  to  put  these  society  women  to 
shame." 

"How  splendid!"  exclaimed  the  banker's 
daughter.  "Let  us  combine  our  forces  to  render 
our  society  women  even  more  outre  than  they 
are." 

"We  ought  to  make  New  York  shine  with  the 
splendour  of  Florence  under  Lorenzo  the  Mag- 
nificent," said  the  Senator's  daughter.  "Father 
says  if  we  women  begin  the  glorious  work  in  New 
York  men  will  be  found  later  on  to  join  us,  and 
money-making  for  the  love  of  money  will  become 
absolutely  unfashionable.  Who  knows,  perhaps, 
if  America  is  to  remain  a  great  Repubhc  it  will 
be  because  of  art,  literature,  poetry,  and  philo- 
sophy.   If  the  Republic  can  develop  and  foster 


REPUBLIC   OR   EMPIRE?      99 

an  aristocracy  of  intellect  the  Republic  is  safe. 
Anyway,  the  next  five  or  ten  years  will  tell  the 
tale." 

"And  suppose  the  next  ten  years  comes  and 
goes  like  Halley's  comet,  without  a  tail,  then 
what?" 

It  was  the  sharp,  acrid  voice  of  the  Trust  mag- 
nate's wife.  She  had  approached  the  two  young 
women  for  a  moment  before  taking  her  departure. 
When  she  was  gone  the  senator's  daughter  said  to 
her  companion :  "What  an  acquisition  she  would 
be  to  our  work  if  her  culture  were  as  quick  as  her 
tongue!" 

"Alas,  yes!"  said  the  other,  "but  if  she  had 
culture  she  would  not  be  in  this  room  —  that  is, 
not  at  her  age." 

"And  just  think,"  went  on  the  senator's 
daughter,  "what  a  treat  it  will  be  to  assist  and 
encourage  genius  according  to  individual  merit! 
I  feel  certain  we  are  happier  than  our  poor  hostess 
with  her  impossible  ambitions  and  her — " 

"Good  heavens!"  exclaimed  the  other,  "she  's 
taking  her  seat  under  the  canopy  she  put  up  last 
year  to  receive  the  princess." 

"Let 's  be  off.  She  '11  ex-pect  us  to  kiss  her 
hand." 


THE   PARLIAMENTARY  ARENA 

IN  the  Parliamentary  world  there  are  but  two 
kinds  of  power  —  the  material  and  the  intel- 
lectual. The  material  fascinates  all  who  are 
moved  by  an  eagle  eye,  a  bull-dog  chin,  a  grama- 
phone  voice,  and  machine-made  rhetoric.  There 
are  politicians  who  control  the  people  not  by 
grasping  but  by  gazing.  They  have  top-knots 
but  no  beaks,  gimlet  eyes  but  no  talons.  Power 
is  exerted  by  looks  instead  of  deeds,  symbols 
instead  of  sentiments.  Others  combine  looks 
with  words,  the  gymnastics  of  gesture  with  the 
shibboleths  of  political  hygiene,  and  there  are 
bulls  who  toss  patriotism  like  a  red  flag,  and 
gore  capital  without  mercy. 

As  a  rule  the  pervading  aura  emanates  not 
from  the  spirit  but  from  the  carcass.  Their 
mandates  have  the  rumbling  of  the  thunder- 
cloud, minus  the  lightning.  They  are  the  whales 
of  the  political  ocean,  avoiding  the  harpoon 
while  bolting  the  gudgeon.  But  Mr.  Arthur 
Balfour  is  like  a  political  eel  who  darts  and  glides 
where  the  Mammals  did  nothing  but  spout  and 
flounder. 


PARLIAMENTARY  ARENA     loi 

He  has  been  taken  twice  by  the  net,  once  by 
the  tail,  but  never  by  the  hook.  He  ignores  the 
flounders,  darts  past  the  sharks,  and  skims  the 
surface  of  the  social  sea  faster  than  any  flying- 
fish. 

No  one  knows  the  mysterious  breeding-place 
of  the  eel,  and  no  one  has  ever  delved  into  the 
intellectual  broodings  of  Mr.  Balfour.  Light  of 
weight,  he  stands  forth  a  mere  shadow  thrown 
across  the  balked  bodies  of  beery  knights  and 
bloated  barons,  a  sore  menace  to  the  worshippers 
of  bulk  and  the  idolaters  of  blood  and  muscle. 
He  has  none  of  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
Mammon;  no  bulbous  nose,  no  flaming  cheeks, 
no  dome,  no  rotundity,  no  beefy  charlatanism, 
no  quack-nostrum-panacea-look;  he  is  no  patent 
political  syringe-spray-disinfectant-medicine-man, 
but  the  proper  companion  of  artists  and  aristo- 
cratic determinists,  as  distant  from  diabolian 
debaters  as  Jupiter  from  hot-headed  Mars. 

He  is  protean  at  a  time  when  others  are  mak- 
ing vain  protestations  of  omnipotence.  He  plays 
with  the  schemes  of  certain  members  in  the  non- 
chalant way  a  skilled  dowager  plays  with  the 
stakes  of  an  unsophisticated  Miss,  who  imagines 
herself  in  the  fashionable  swim  when  she  is  only 
having  her  pores  and  her  pocket-book  opened  at 


I02    THE    INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

a  hot  game  of  bridge.  Arthur  Balfour  is  one  of 
the  few  long-headed  statesmen  since  Chatham. 
For  he,  and  he  alone,  has  applied  a  sort  of  "prac- 
tical mysticism"  to  the  beef-and-potato  policy  of 
the  cooks  at  Westminster.  He  is  a  metaphysician 
who  considers  the  earth,  times  the  pulse  of  his 
opponents,  looks  at  their  tongues,  whacks  their 
knee-joints,  meditates  long  enough  to  know  the 
day  and  the  hour  of  their  locomotor-ataxy-finale. 
He  has  watched  Lord  Rosebery  play  Apollo  to 
young  dukes  at  banquets  and  ApoUyon  to  old 
duchesses  at  the  Derby;  watched  him  attempt 
the  role  of  Puck  in  the  midsummer  madness  by 
trying  to  put  a  girdle  round  the  earth  with  the 
belt  of  an  Earl;  watched  him  bamboozle  the 
Lords  by  fine  phrases  and  champagne  rhetoric. 
For  the  real  difference  between  Balfour  and  Rose- 
bery is  to  be  seen  in  the  management  of  their 
public  performances. 

The  noble  Earl  never  keeps  his  eye  off  the 
social  function  and  the  social  effect.  Society 
takes  first  place  in  his  scheme  of  razzle-dazzle. 
Politics  come  into  the  banquet  much  as  a  roast 
bird  of  paradise  with  an  ostrich  plume  stuck  in 
its  tail.  He  is  our  only  statuesque  statesman. 
After  riding  into  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  on 
the  back  of  a  thoroughbred,  he  poised  like  Mer- 


PARLIAMENTARY  ARENA     103 

cury  for  a  brief  moment  on  the  globe  of  Empire, 
with  one  toe  touching  the  ball  at  the  top  of  the 
social  staircase;  both  feet  on  the  floor  would 
have  been  a  desecration  of  divinity.  For  at  one 
time  Lord  Rosebery  was  a  transcendental  demo- 
crat, who  beat  the  religious  air  with  mercurial 
wings,  deftly  sounding  the  harp  of  Nonconformity 
with  vague  aeoUan  numbers  without  once  playing 
a  tune  anyone  could  remember.  In  these  days 
he  comes  forth  at  the  hour  of  political  hunger, 
like  old  Mother  Hubbard,  pointing  a  lean  finger 
at  the  remnants  left  by  Scotch  terriers,  Irish 
bulls,  and  English  half-breeds,  for  something  has 
happened  during  his  absence  —  the  artful  Arthur 
has  found  the  bones  and  picked  them  bare.  For 
he,  and  not  Rosebery,  is  the  watchdog  of  castle 
and  close;  he  it  is  who  makes  the  silent  rounds 
while  the  others  are  snoring  under  their  parti- 
coloured quilts,  he  it  is  who  sniffs  the  proletarian 
pole-cats  from  afar,  catches  the  sound  of  foot- 
pads beyond  the  garden  gate,  who  knows  the 
difference  between  a  brindled  cat  and  a  black 
nondescript  in  a  London  fog.  Our  only  Arthur 
is  not  playing  a  game  of  aristocratic  seclusion. 

Lord  Rosebery  times  his  speech-making  to  the 
psychological  social  moment,  but  Mr.  Balfour  is 
on  hand,  equipped  like  a  doctor  with  a  large  prac- 


I04    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

tice  and  small  medicine  case  full  of  specifics  for  all 
forms  of  national  malaria,  parochial  quinsy,  reli- 
gious tic-doloureux,  paradoxical  neurasthenia,  and 
Imperial  hysterics.  Besides  this,  he  is  a  musician 
of  parts  as  well  as  of  parties;  he  knows  all  the 
Celtic  tunes,  with  the  English  airs  thrown  in,  and 
that  is  saying  more  than  one  could  say  of  Lord 
Rosebery,  who  dare  not  venture  further  than 
"Rule  Britannia"  or  "Polly  put  the  kettle  on." 
No  need  for  Arthur  Balfour  to  harp  on  one  string; 
England  is  his  organ,  Scotland  his  bagpipes.  Par- 
liament his  fiddle;  he  is  gravedigger  in  the  House 
of  Commons  (as  the  noble  Earl  is  Hamlet  in  the 
House  of  Lords),  and  plays  a  lament  at  every 
fresh  burial  of  the  other  Party.  Without  Mr. 
Balfour  the  Commons  would  fall  below  concert 
pitch,  excepting  when  the  Irish  have  the  floor  or 
when  the  Labour  leaders  are  rehearsing  for  the 
millennium  under  the  baton  of  Mr.  Keir  Hardie. 
Mr.  Balfour  can  smile  with  dignity  and  be 
sociable  with  sang-froid.  Give  a  statesman  the 
reputation  of  a  fashionable  clubman  and  he  be- 
comes like  Ceylon  tea  that  has  been  drawn  once. 
Chronic  after-dinner  speech-making  is  a  danger- 
ous indulgence.  There  is  no  occasion  where  dis- 
illusionment can  come  with  a  stroke  so  sudden. 
A  man  who  does  it  once  with  the  felicity  that 


PARLIAMENTARY  ARENA     105 

unites  a  godlike  grip  %\ath  the  golden  mean  of  wit 
and  humour  has  run  the  gauntlet  of  bayonets  in 
a  pitched  battle,  escaped  the  bullets,  and  missed 
the  bombs.  He  may  well  apply  for  a  medal,  not 
for  having  lost  a  limb,  but  for  having  emerged 
from  so  deadly  an  affair  without  a  scratch.  Be- 
fore he  begins  to  speak  the  toast-responder  has 
to  recruit  and  skirmish  for  facts,  then  marshal  his 
words  and  drill  his  sentences.  In  the  middle  of 
the  speech  the  rhetorical  manoeuvres  begin,  and 
here,  on  the  Champ  de  Mars  of  his  own  imagi- 
nation, he  assaults  the  passions  of  the  f casters, 
storms  their  emotions,  scales  the  Spion  Kop  of 
their  patriotism,  and  takes  his  seat  on  the  summit. 
Four  things  go  to  the  making  of  such  an  accom- 
plishment —  art,  intuition,  opportunity,  and 
power.  Since  Disraeli,  no  statesman  in  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  has  been  in  possession  of  such  a 
gift.  To  be  iricister  of  such  an  art  a  statesman 
cannot  appear  to  order  at  all  times  and  seasons 
and  pass  for  a  recluse  in  a  castle  whose  walls  defy 
the  maddest  Romeos  in  search  of  the  most  illu- 
sive Juliets. 

Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain  is  the  only  one  who 
could  eat,  drink,  and  make  merry  in  the  midst 
of  City  Fathers  and  bloated  Aldermen,  and  re- 
main the  gimlet-boring,  screw-driving  Joe  Cham- 


io6    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

berlain  of  old.  He  could  rise  at  a  dinner  and  quaff 
a  glass  of  port  to  the  health  of  the  portly  barons, 
and  be  paradoxical  in  wishing  them  a  better 
mien  on  a  still  more  gouty  diet.  He  could  re\'ise 
their  tariff,  subdivide  their  lands,  supervise  their 
food,  subsidise  the  Navy,  and  patronise  the  Lords. 
If  Mr.  Balfour  is  the  eel  among  politicians, 
Joseph  Chamberlain  is  the  ferret  in  the  rabbit 
warren  of  the  long-eared  financiers.  He  does  not 
hunt  like  the  fox  and  hide  with  the  hare.  He 
does  no  hunting,  yet  his  pack  are  hounding  the 
moss-backs  out  of  their  lairs  and  out  of  their  wits. 
He  follows  no  man's  horn  but  that  of  his  own 
proboscis,  asks  for  nothing  but  the  power  to 
stand  up  in  Parliament  and  by  a  flash  of  those 
steely  eyes  make  them  sing  a  new  song: 


'Of  gout  where  is  thy  sting! 
Oh  Joe  where  is  thy  victory!' 


Mr.  Lloyd  George  is  cock  of  the  walk  in  little 
Wales,  but  on  the  big  cock-walk  of  the  Terrace 
of  the  House  the  bipeds  with  goose  quills  preen 
their  feathers  to  Imperial  flights  while  hatching 
dragons. 

Parliament  now  contains  a  plethora  of  parties 
of  a  nondescript  order  who  suggest  strong  mustard 
in  a  sham-sandwich,  watercress  on  a  stream  filled 


PARLIAMENTARY  ARENA     107 

with  Scotch  sahnon  and  Tipperary  trout,  or  a 
dash  of  lemon  juice  in  a  cosmopolitan  toddy. 

What  they  need  is  another  edition  of  Tim 
Healy.  At  the  beautiful  Parliamentary  banquets 
he  is  pepper,  salt,  vinegar,  champagne,  and  the 
carving-knife.  His  slices  are  thin,  but  no  one 
asks  for  a  second  helping.  Our  only  Tun  holds 
some  members  in  their  seats  by  a  mere  glance, 
and  for  a  very  good  reason.  His  words  are 
prussic-acid  apphed  to  political  gilt.  They  bum 
through  to  the  brass  bottom.  The  \dtriol  hisses 
and  the  House  becomes  like  a  place  undergoing 
disinfection;  dead  men  have  been  carried  out 
stricken  by  a  microbe  which  is  not  down  in  the 
medical  books.  He  makes  people  laugh;  but 
there  are  people  who  would  laugh  even  in  a  room 
given  over  to  vi\dsection.  Everything  goes  on 
the  floor  of  the  House,  that  dear  old  floor,  whose 
cracks  are  wide  enough  to  let  the  fumes  of  Hades 
rise  and  choke  many  an  honourable  and  virtuous 
member  with  the  vapours  of  envy,  jealousy,  and 
social  rivalry.  Evidently  the  House  exists  for 
three  purposes:  as  a  figure-head  of  aristocracy,  as 
a  figure-head  of  commerce,  and  as  a  figure-head 
of  democracy. 

Just  at  present  Mr.  Balfour  stands  for  the  first, 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  for  the  second,  Mr.  Keir  Hardie 


io8    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

for  the  third.  The  Irish  are  there,  and  will  remain 
there;  they  are  there  to  wake  the  dead,  deter- 
mined to  give  each  corpse  a  decent  burial;  they 
constitute  a  fourth  estate.  But  there  is  a  fifth 
estate,  formed  by  the  moths  whose  wings  have 
been  scorched  by  those  fatal  candles  at  St. 
Stephens,  that  burn  at  both  ends,  one  tallow, 
that  smokes  in  the  Lower  House,  the  servants' 
hall,  the  other  wax,  that  burns  serenely  in  the 
Upper  House,  the  gentlemen's  club  —  the  place 
where  pipe-clay  becomes  marble,  where  every 
good  politician  would  like  to  go  when  he  shuffles 
off  the  mortal  coil  of  non-conforming,  demagogu- 
ing,  two-a-penny  existence.  But  what  a  crowd 
of  moths  are  attracted  by  the  glare  of  the  tallow 
dip!  Rosebery  himself,  not  content  with  the 
halo  of  the  aurora  borealis  of  the  House  of  the 
silver  spoons,  flits  about  the  candles  of  the  Lower 
House. 

There  is  but  one  party  that  can  afford  the 
luxury  of  doing  what  they  please;  that  party 
counts  among  its  members  Mr.  Keir  Hardie. 
They  can  wear  dickies,  play  skittles  with  modes 
and  manners,  thirnip  tables,  and  call  names.  The 
only  way  to  succeed  in  Parliament  to-day  is  to 
begin  by  being  rude.  To  win  the  respect  of  the 
"hupper  succles,"  take  them  on  the  level  of  the 


PARLIAMENTARY  ARENA     109 

mood  you  happen  to  be  in.  Tell  them  you  have 
no  objection  when  the  social  upheaval  comes  for 
them  to  cultivate  a  cabbage  patch  a  la  Wiggs 
at  Government  expense.  This  will  take  their 
breath  away,  and  the  social  whales  will  not  at- 
tempt to  swallow  the  prophetic  Jonah.  A  poli- 
tician may  change  his  policy,  but  pure  poUtics 
means  get  on  and  keep  on!  Nevertheless,  as 
Emerson  said:  "An  aristocrat  is  one  who  is  doing 
his  best  to  become  a  democrat." 

The  philosophical  democrat  is  the  true  blue 
aristocrat.  That  is  why  there  is  an  Upper  House. 
But  the  Upper  House  is  top  hea\y  with  men 
who  cannot  tell  the  difference  between  a  tallow 
dip  and  a  wax  candle.  It  has  long  been  the 
dumping-ground  for  the  decrepit  who  were  once 
intrepid,  for  shambling  figure-heads  minus  the 
culture  of  the  real  aristocrat  and  lacking  the 
ordinary  business  capacity  of  a  successful  green- 
grocer. The  majority  are  porous-plasters  on  the 
national  body,  leeches  on  the  old  war-horse  of 
glorious  memories.  We  may  now  expect  a  series 
of  the  most  astounding  games  ever  played  on  a 
Parliamentary  chess-board. 


THE  SOUL'S  NEW  REFUGE 

IF  Walter  Pater  had  said  music  will  soon  take 
precedence  of  all  the  other  arts,  he  would  have 
been  as  much  in  the  right  as  when  he  said:  "All 
art  aspires  towards  music." 

Sentiment  and  emotion  must  have  an  outlet. 
Modes  of  expression  shift  from  one  art  to  another. 
And  if  it  is  true  that  realism  has  taken  the  place 
of  romance  in  the  novel,  if  it  is  true  that  the 
cynical  has  banished  the  ideal  from  literature,  if 
the  commonplace  has  taken  the  place  of  beauty 
in  art,  music  restores  all  that  the  other  arts  have 
lost.  It  is  the  only  art  untrammelled  by  sects, 
opinions,  parties,  and  geographical  limits,  with 
an  adequate  expression  for  all  the  varying  moods 
of  humanity  and  the  most  subtle  intimations  of 
a  world  lying  beyond  that  of  reason  and  will. 

Individualism  and  contradiction  have  driven 
the  soul  to  seek  a  refuge  in  the  overworld  of  har- 
monic vibrations.  In  England,  puritanism  put  a 
ban  on  music,  and  the  people  were  driven  to 
poetry  for  a  psychic  appeal  to  the  higher  states 
of  consciousness.  Milton  was  a  musician  who  ex- 
pressed his  emotions  in  verse,  and  was  the  first 


THE  SOUL'S  NEW  REFUGE     iii 

to  fill  the  void;  but  not  till  the  death  of  Tennyson 
did  poetry  in  England  begin  to  give  way  to  musi- 
cal inspiration. 

Shelley  was  a  lyrical  metaphysician,  Browning 
tried  to  wed  philosophy  to  rhyme,  Wordsworth 
did  his  utmost  to  bring  the  divinity  in  Nature  to 
the  comprehension  of  the  people,  but  all  the 
English  poets  of  the  past  hundred  years  were 
agitated  by  a  spirit  of  transition.  They  re- 
presented not  so  much  a  state  of  the  soul  as  a 
spirit  of  agitation  and  discontent.  They  were 
always  reaching  out  for  something  just  above 
attainment.  Swinburne  came  the  nearest  to 
wedding  words  to  music,  and  his  poetry  might 
have  been  as  psychic  as  it  was  musical  had  he  not, 
in  the  beginning,  steeped  his  mind  in  the  transient 
commonplaces  of  political  and  transitory  pas- 
sions. He  revelled  in  combinations  of  rhyme  as 
Richard  Wagner  often  revelled  in  combinations 
of  chords  behind  which  there  was  no  meaning. 
Swinburne  reached  the  borderland  where  words 
cease  and  music  begins,  and  it  is  a  significant 
fact  that  just  as  he  finished  his  career,  music 
estabHshed  her  dominion  not  only  in  England 
but  in  all  the  English-speaking  countries. 

It  required  four  centuries  of  Enghsh  poetry  to 
prepare  the  Anglo-Saxon  ear  for  a  return  of  the 


112    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

art  that  dominated  all  the  arts  of  the  Greeks, 
and  nearly  three  thousand  years  for  the  Orphean 
\dbration  to  encircle  the  Western  worlds.  With 
the  Greeks,  music  was  the  basis  of  all  great 
thought  and  all  artistic  inspiration.  With  them 
certain  modes  of  music  had  an  esoteric  meaning, 
a  positive  bearing  on  creative  thought,  a  power 
to  awaken  dormant  faculties  and  engender  ideas. 
With  the  materialistic  Romans,  under  the  Caesars, 
music  lost  its  psychic  power ;  but  with  the  advent 
of  Palestrina  it  became  a  means  of  religious  ex- 
altation. Palestrina  made  it  a  method  of  praise 
instead  of  a  channel  of  inspiration  as  with  the 
Greeks.  Later,  the  Italian  opera  became  a  vehicle 
for  the  display  of  dramatic  passion  and  trivial 
humour,  a  form  of  amusement  for  the  passing 
hour,  with  little  suggestion  of  the  mystical  or 
the  esoteric.  With  the  symphony  began  that 
combination  of  melody,  form,  and  rhythm  which 
was  to  lead  the  way  to  a  return  of  the  tonal  sym- 
bols and  esoteric  meanings  of  the  ancients. 

Wagner,  whose  genius  was  dominated  by  move- 
ment and  agitation,  frequently  achieved  the 
sublime  without  attaining  the  desired  esoteric 
serenity,  but  Debussy  succeeded  in  attaining  by 
modern  orchestral  means  a  much  nearer  approach 
to  the  subtle  suggestiveness  of  the  Greeks  at  the 


THE  SOUL'S  NEW   REFUGE     113 

time  of  Pythagoras.  Since  Debussy  began  his 
work  orchestral  music  has  become  more  abso- 
lute, more  transcendent,  forcing  technique  and 
counterpoint  to  take  an  inferior  place. 

The  first  popular  expression  of  music  in  Eng- 
land was  shown  in  the  works  of  Gilbert  and  Sulli- 
van. Previous  to  their  advent  musical  art  in  this 
country  was  intended  for  musicians.  Concerts 
and  operas  were  patronised  by  a  restricted  class, 
and  the  number  seemed  never  to  increase.  But 
now  the  public  began  to  awaken  to  the  possibili- 
ties of  the  rhythmic  in  comedy  and  in  drama. 
The  music-halls  gradually  became  more  musical 
than  farcical,  the  lyric-dramas  of  Wagner  began 
to  free  the  public  ear  from  the  bondage  of  the 
puritanical  mode,  and  musical  comedy  and 
burlesque  began  to  detract  from  ordinary  plays 
and  dramas.  The  melodrama,  like  the  operetta, 
was  an  importation  from  Paris,  and  still  newer 
musical  forms  have  come  from  there  and  from 
Germany,  for  music  is  now  the  one  cosmopolitan, 
universal  art  whose  power  is  recognised  in  every 
land.  It  is  now  much  more  international  than 
literature.  And  the  reason  is  simple  enough  — 
opinions  in  books  clash  with  other  opinions,  and 
one  country  may  fail  to  become  interested  in  the 
sentiments  and  doings  of  another  country;   but 


114    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

music  ignores  opinions  and  deals  directly  with 
feeling  and  emotion.  It  is  for  the  senses,  while 
books  are  mainly  for  the  intellect,  and  the  intel- 
lect is  always  at  war  with  the  intellectual. 

"One  touch  of  Nature  makes  the  whole  world 
kin,"  says  an  old  saw,  and  it  is  just  as  true  that 
one  touch  of  music  puts  all  the  world  in  tune. 
It  is  the  quintessential  magic  whose  potency  is 
now  felt  by  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth,  from  the 
most  intellectual  to  the  most  illiterate. 

With  but  few  exceptions,  in  former  times,  com- 
posers could  not  reason  profoundly.  The  mar- 
vellous Mozart  seemed  all  nerv^es,  and  Chopin 
was  incapable  of  profound  reasoning  about  any- 
thing; but  his  contemporary,  Berlioz,  was  a 
writer  of  real  talent  and  militant  convic- 
tions. Beethoven  was  the  profound  est  thinker 
of  them  all. 

And  now  once  more  in  the  history  of  civilisa- 
tion the  signs  point  to  a  union  of  music,  literature, 
and  philosophy,  with  music  as  the  key  to  all.  If 
such  a  union  is  consummated  it  will  metamor- 
phose the  world  of  art,  literature,  and  psychology. 
One  thing  may  be  taken  for  granted  —  music,  in 
our  day,  has  become  for  many  thousands  of 
people  a  refuge  against  the  onslaughts  and  delu- 
sions of  materialism,  and  just  in  proportion  as 


THE    SOUL'S  NEW  REFUGE     115 

opinions  become  more  positive,  music  will  be- 
come more  imperative.  Society  ha\dng  become 
chaotic,  people  will  be  more  and  more  attracted  to 
the  harmony  created  by  rhythmic  sounds.  But 
more  than  all  else,  music  is  becoming  a  psychic 
necessity. 

There  never  was  a  time  when  so  many  lead- 
ing thinkers,  artists,  and  writers  were  practical 
musicians. 

In  France,  Auber  was  the  first  to  express  a 
national  musical  taste;  he  was  the  forerunner 
of  Offenbach,  who  brought  music  to  the  compre- 
hension of  the  wits  and  writers  of  the  boulevard, 
forming  a  bridge  between  the  Italian  opera  and 
musical  burlesque.  In  the  operetta,  he  embodied 
the  sentiment  and  esprit  of  the  typical  boule- 
vardier.  He  sentimentalised  Parisian  cynicism. 
He  was  the  first  musical  genius  whose  work  was 
acclaimed  within  the  space  of  a  single  decade  in 
Berlin  and  St.  Petersburg,  in  Vienna  and  Rome, 
in  London  and  New  York.  Offenbach  began  to 
compose  in  1858,  and  he  was  famous  long  before 
Arthur  Sullivan  achieved  celebrity.  He  revo- 
lutionised the  musical  world  as  much  in  his  own 
sphere  as  Wagner  did  in  his,  and,  between  the 
two,  music  began  to  take  a  firm  hold  in  places 
where  it  had  little,  if  any,  influence  before.    While 


ii6    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Wagner  was  regarding  the  world  from  Parsifalian 
heights,  Offenbach  was  raising  wit  and  gaiety  to 
a  higher  level,  appeasing  the  sentimental  cynics 
of  a  hlase  empire,  inspiring  writers  and  artists 
with  suave  melodies  that  often  attained  the  serene 
dignity  of  Meyerbeer  or  the  most  passionate  out- 
bursts of  Rossini. 

Logic  is  the  enemy  of  musical  originality,  and 
the  French  mind,  being  the  most  logical  in  Europe, 
at  first  refused  Wagner,  who  was  a  musical  Goth, 
and,  for  a  time,  resisted  Offenbach,  who  was  a 
musical  Visigoth,  for  both  were  Germans.  But 
music  defies  logic  and  ignores  reason.  It  did  in 
France  what  literature  could  not  do,  and  the 
more  people  boasted  of  their  Voltairian  scepti- 
cism the  greater  the  attraction  they  felt  for  the 
new  musical  modes  of  expression. 

Rousseau  was  the  first  modern  writer  to  defy 
French  logic  and  begin  to  talk  about  Nature  as 
a  poet-musician  would  talk  about  flowers,  bees, 
and  birds.  He  was  the  first  modern  to  attain  a 
universal  psychic  rhythm  by  words.  He  was  the 
first  to  make  literature  musical.  This  was  his 
secret.  Voltaire,  devoid  of  the  musical  sense, 
remains  but  a  catchword  for  people  whose  souls 
are  like  dried  parchments  for  the  shibboleths  of 
negation,  while  the  rhythmic  vibrations  set  in 


THE   SOUL'S  NEW  REFUGE     117 

motion  by  Rousseau  still  continue.  He  did  what 
French  poetry  failed  to  do  because  of  the  bond- 
age placed  upon  it  by  logical  form  and  the  re- 
strictions of  Latin  art.  He  turned  on  the  faucets 
of  inspiration,  and  let  the  musical  waves  descend 
from  a  mountain  of  emotional  rhythm  which  in- 
undated two  continents,  fertilising  the  intellec- 
tual deserts  of  the  Gaul,  the  Teuton,  the  Slav,  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  and  the  Anglo-American, 

The  \dbrations  of  wit  and  humour  are  not  con- 
tinuous. This  is  why  people  reason  about  Vol- 
taire as  they  reason  about  shoe-leather.  He  was 
a  figure-head,  Rousseau  a  fountain-head.  Cyni- 
cism has  never  conquered  sentiment.  But  senti- 
ment had  to  be  embodied  in  the  musical  mode; 
yet  Rousseau  was  not  a  sentimental  automaton; 
he  was  a  born  artist  who  turned  to  Nature  and 
the  simple  life  for  deliverance  from  the  Parisian 
plague  of  sceptical  logic  and  witty  sophistry,  a 
writer  who  wielded  a  power  that  defied  all  the 
schools  of  classical  art  and  every  system  of  Latin 
philosophy.  Behind  all,  deep  in  the  recesses  of 
his  nature,  there  resided  the  quintessential  har- 
mony of  form  and  number,  the  secret  of  all  literary 
magic.  It  was  not  what  he  taught  that  influenced 
the  world,  but  the  way  he  taught;  not  the  matter, 
but  the  manner.    Had  anyone  else  taught  some- 


ii8    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

thing  different  with  the  same  verbal  power,  the 
results  would  have  been  the  same.  Others  be- 
fore liim  had  said  much  the  same  things,  but  the 
writers  were  not  endowed  with  the  harmonic 
mysteries  of  speech. 

Rousseau  spread  over  the  world  a  psychic  aura 
fashioned  in  the  mould  of  harmonic  law.  In  his 
symphonic  sentences  his  baton  was  not  wielded 
by  reason  but  by  emotion.  Millet  and  Manet  did 
much  the  same  for  art  a  hundred  years  later, 
proving  once  again  that  form  without  psychic 
vitality  is  void  of  power.  Form  must  embody 
feeling  before  it  can  act  on  the  feelings  of  others, 
and  all  great  art  is  the  result  of  combined  com- 
prehension and  feeling.  The  greatest  are  those 
who  can  both  see  and  transcribe. 

"Francis  Bacon,"  says  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour, 
''was  a  prophet  and  a  seer;  he  is  never  tired  of 
telling  us  that  the  kingdom  of  Nature,  like  the 
kingdom  of  God,  can  only  be  entered  by  those 
who  approach  it  in  the  spirit  of  the  child." 

Bacon,  like  a  great  artist-seer,  "created  the 
atmosphere  in  which  scientific  discovery  flour- 
ishes." But  it  required  upwards  of  two  centuries 
for  his  prophecies  to  begin  to  be  realised,  while 
Rousseau  lived  to  see  marvellous  results  follow 
the  appearance  of  his  works.    Bacon  had  to  fight  a 


THE    SOUL'S  NEW  REFUGE     119 

wilful  and  blind  science,  but  Rousseau  had  to 
battle  with  the  prevailing  logic  and  the  Voltairian 
gossips  of  the  salons,  and  these  were  often  as 
formidable  as  an  army  of  well-drilled  apes  armed 
with  rapiers.  Wit  was  too  blunt  and  common  a 
weapon  to  be  of  any  use  here,  and  argument 
alone  was  futile.  Everybody  could  argue.  The 
call  was  for  a  magician  who  could  operate  by 
revulsion.  The  fashionable  mania  had  to  be 
stilled  by  a  new  Orpheus  who  could  sing  while 
he  operated,  whose  di\dne  art  swamped  gossip, 
drowned  persiflage,  and  led  people  captive  towards 
the  green  fields  of  a  new  Eden. 

Rousseau  was  in  no  sense  a  humorist.  Neither 
was  Chateaubriand,  who  succeeded  him,  nor 
Hugo,  who  succeeded  Chateaubriand.  Tolstoy 
was  influenced  more  by  Rousseau's  politics  than 
he  was  by  the  deeper  meanings  of  his  art.  The 
Russian  realist  could  not  grasp  the  harmonic 
significance  of  Rousseau  the  poet,  and  perhaps 
it  was  the  lack  of  humour  in  Tolstoy  that  made 
him  respond  to  the  fanatical  and  visionary  ele- 
ments of  the  Social  Contract  and  the  insanity  of 
the  Confessions,  for  Tolstoy  was  a  Russian  Jean 
Jacques  without  his  Orphic  charm. 

And  this  leads  me  to  remember  that  Russian 
prose  has  always  lacked  the  rhythmic  element. 


I20    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Russian  writers  have  possessed  dramatic  and 
psychological  power,  but  the  want  of  the  rhyth- 
mic quality  in  the  novelists  of  that  country  is 
now  driving  the  Russian  public  from  literature 
to  music,  the  last  refuge  from  realistic  negation. 


IMPRESSIONS   OF   ITALY 

THE  bane  of  the  modern  travelling  world  is 
to  be  found  in  the  tendency  to  see  people, 
climate,  countries,  and  art  through  someone's 
tinted  spectacles,  and,  above  all,  by  the  aid  of 
someone's  guide-book.  Italy  has  suffered  more 
than  any  other  country  from  the  guide-book  pest. 
Few  sightseers  are  able  to  give  you  a  vivid  per- 
sonal impression  of  people  and  things  in  that 
country.  Even  learned  travellers,  before  com- 
ing to  Italy,  think  the  proper  thing  to  do  is  to 
steep  their  minds  in  books  about  this  or  that  art, 
this  or  that  city,  until  they  are  so  full  of  the  opin- 
ions and  sensations  of  others  that  they  have  no 
place  for  personal  feeling  or  personal  opinion.  It 
would  be  instructive  to  find  out  how  many  Anglo- 
Americans  have  steeped  their  brains  in  Ruskin 
before  coming  to  Italy,  how  many  Germans  have 
been  hypnotised  by  Goethe's  impressions,  how 
many  novel  readers  have  made  themselves  drunk 
on  Madame  de  Stael's  Corinne  before  seeing  this 
country. 

The  only  people  who  escape  this  blunder  are 
the  French.     It  is  all  but  impossible  to  fool  a 


122    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Frenchman  in  this  way;  he  persists  in  being  in- 
fluenced by  his  own  impressions.  He  makes  use 
of  a  guide-book  only  for  the  routine  details. 
Another  fatal  drawback  is  to  come  to  Florence 
expecting  to  see  the  Florence  of  Dante.  There 
is  about  as  much  relation  between  Dante's  age 
and  the  present  as  there  is  between  Shake- 
speare's age  and  the  age  of  Dickens.  The  fact 
that  Italians  dress  like  other  people  and  in  the 
modern  fashions  ought  to  be  sufficient  to  bring 
people  to  their  senses  in  this  matter. 

What  concerns  me  when  I  walk  in  the  Lung 
Arno  is  what  the  living  people  look  like,  what 
they  are  doing,  and  what  they  think.  Foreign 
visitors  rarely  see  a  thing  as  a  whole.  Their  im- 
pressions are  just  as  often  -wrong  as  right,  and 
some  of  the  supposed  authorities  are  positively 
colour-blind.  There  are  writers  on  Italy  who 
are  unable  to  distinguish  the  difference  in  shades 
of  trees,  hills,  sky,  and  atmosphere.  The  actual 
colour  of  the  olive  tree,  seen  at  a  little  distance, 
is  not  green  but  a  neutral  grey;  seen  close  at 
hand  it  becomes  a  grey-green.  The  cypress  at  a 
little  distance  is  what  artists  call  a  terre-verte, 
and  under  a  cloudy  sky  a  cyj^ress  grove  becomes 
much  nearer  being  black  than  any  shade  I  ever 
saw  in  the  Black  Forest  of  Baden. 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  ITALY    123 

There  is  what  one  might  call  a  fixed  orthodox 
superstition  about  Italy.  The  superstition  is 
imbibed  not  in  Italy,  but  long  before  people  come 
here.  This  perversion  teaches  the  horde  of  visit- 
ors to  smile  or  weep  at  the  wrong  things  and  in 
the  wrong  places.  Ruskin's  exaggerations  have 
had,  and  are  still  having,  much  to  do  with  this 
far-fetched  sentimentality.  Ruskin,  in  about 
eighty  per  cent  of  cases,  is  admired  not  for  his 
real  beauty  as  a  writer,  not  for  his  rare  aesthetic 
penetration,  but  for  his  errors  of  judgment. 

As  for  the  lesser  writers,  most  of  them  spoil  a 
good  thing  by  trying  too  hard  to  depict  what  is 
perhaps  beyond  anyone's  powers  to  depict  ade- 
quately in  words.  Italy  is  at  once  illusive  and 
real,  and  to  describe  things  as  they  are  writers 
should  be  artists  and  poets,  with  a  strong  sense 
of  the  real.  Italy  is  too  clearly  wrought,  too 
positive,  too  reahstic,  to  be  treated  metaphysi- 
cally. Abstruse  ethical  criticism  renders  the  sub- 
ject still  more  illusive.  The  Italians  come  to  the 
reality  through  the  medium  of  poetry,  music, 
and  literature;  they  have  never  been  much  in- 
fluenced by  the  abstract  methods  of  the  cold 
North  nor  even  by  the  cold  logic  of  the  French, 
and  the  present  renaissance  is  appealing  to  the 
scientific  and  philosophical  mode  of  thought  in 


124    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

a  manner  which  is  quite  new  to  Italy.  But  while 
the  Italians  are  becoming  more  scientific  they 
remain  at  heart  poets  and  musicians,  because  the 
Italian  temperament  cannot,  even  if  it  would, 
get  rid  of  poetry  and  music. 

To  be  in  Italy  again  after  an  absence  of  nearly 
twenty  years  has  ushered  me  through  a  series 
of  sensations  as  fresh  and  new  as  any  I  ever 
experienced. 

It  is  now  many  years  since  I  received  my  first 
impressions  of  Italian  art,  not  from  brick,  or 
marble,  or  anything  plastic,  but  from  the  living 
embodiment  of  the  highest  expression  of  dramatic 
genius  of  that  time,  the  incomparable  Ristori, 
whom  I  saw  in  her  greatest  roles  —  as  Medea, 
as  Mary  Stuart,  as  Queen  Elizabeth,  as  Lady 
Macbeth,  and,  above  all,  in  her  haunting  imper- 
sonation of  Lucrezia  Borgia,  the  only  dramatic 
creation  which  in  my  mind  is  always  linked  with 
Michelangelo's  "Pieta"  in  marble.  Most  trage- 
dies are  inhuman.  In  Lucrezia  Borgia,  Ristori 
attained  the  summit  of  tragedy  and  touched  the 
deeps  of  maternal  tenderness.  Her  two  supremest 
moments  arrived  when,  as  Lady  Macbeth,  she 
heard  the  announcement  of  the  murder  of  Dun- 
can and  cried  out:  "What!  In  my  house? "  and 
as  Lucrezia  Borgia  when  on  her  knees  she  im- 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  ITALY    125 

plored  Gennaro  to  save  himself  by  swallowing 
the  antidote  to  the  poison  she  had  given  him.  I 
saw  the  crowd  leaving  the  theatre  transformed, 
hushed  into  silence  by  the  passion,  the  power, 
and  the  magic  of  the  reality. 

After  Ristori  the  next  great  dramatic  event 
in  my  experience  was  with  Salvini,  certainly  the 
greatest  tragedian  of  modern  times.  After  see- 
ing him  as  Othello  one  could  not  endure  anyone 
else  in  the  same  role.  His  Macbeth,  also,  was  a 
thrilling  performance;  but  by  far  the  most  im- 
pressive and  realistic  impersonation  of  Macbeth 
I  ever  witnessed  —  and  I  have  seen  all  the  most 
noted  actors  in  that  role  during  the  past  fifty 
years  —  was  an  English  actor  whose  name  I  have 
forgotten,  who  played  the  part  when  I  was  in 
Melbourne  in  1878.  The  acting  of  this  man,  an 
artist  of  the  old  school,  was  the  human  flesh  and 
blood  Macbeth,  passing  on  through  all  the  grades 
of  ambition,  hesitancy,  fear,  harassed  by  halluci- 
nations, driven  from  horror  to  terror,  and  from 
terror  to  the  last  stages  of  desperation,  standing 
in  the  final  scene  like  a  stag  at  bay,  the  beads  of 
sweat  rolUng  down  his  haggard  face,  terrible  and 
desperate  to  the  last. 

In  the  late  'sixties  I  heard  Italian  opera  for 
the  first  time.     There  were  the  tenors  Brignoli 


126    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

and  Fancelli,  and  later  Campanini,  who  took 
London  by  storm  in  the  early  'seventies,  but 
Fancelli  was  divine.  Between  the  tenors  of 
those  days  and  the  tenors  of  the  present  a  great 
gulf  is  fixed.  With  the  advent  of  the  husky, 
blatant  German  school  of  singing  musical  art 
has  all  but  vanished.  When  the  Italian  school 
held  the  boards  a  false  note,  a  husky  voice  were 
things  unknown  in  opera. 

I  once  heard  Titiens  sing  the  role  of  Lucrezia 
Borgia  at  Covent  Garden  in  a  fog,  with  the  stage 
lighted  by  torches,  and  even  then  the  singer  was 
not  more  than  half  visible.  A  shadow  was  seen 
walking  about  the  stage,  emitting  sounds. 

Patti  and  Scalchi  in  Semiramide,  at  a  time 
when  their  voices  were  still  fresh  and  without  a 
flaw,  was  an  event  not  to  be  forgotten. 

I  think  I  have  witnessed  Lucrezia  Borgia,  both 
as  drama  and  opera,  at  least  a  hundred  times  in 
different  parts  of  the  world.  In  former  days 
Italian  opera  was  usually  accompanied  by  a 
ballet.  There  was  Bonfanti,  who  was  almost 
too  fat  to  dance,  and  could  do  little  more  than 
walk  gracefully  through  her  part;  there  was  the 
sylph-like  Morlacchi,  white,  thin,  and  pure  as  a 
lily,  who  turned  the  stage  into  a  kind  of  temple 
while  she  was  dancing;   and  the  wonderful  San- 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  ITALY    127 

galli,  a  terpsichorean  Cleopatra,  whose  very  walk 
had  in  it  something  majestic.  All  these,  and 
scores  of  others,  were  from  La  Scala,  the  one 
institution  that  gave  the  world  its  dominant  tone 
in  operatic  art,  and  without  which  the  art-world 
would  be  still  more  barbarous  than  it  is. 

I  had  for  the  moment  forgotten  Duse,  an 
Italian  of  the  Italians.  Ristori  was  a  tragedienne 
who  acted  as  a  woman,  Duse  is  a  woman  who 
enacts  tragedy.  Rachel  achieved  greatness  by 
her  beautiful  voice  and  an  extraordinary  percep- 
tion of  the  artifices  of  dramatic  art.  Ristori  and 
Duse  became  great  because  of  an  innate  sense  of 
an  art  that  was  natural  and  could  afford  to  dis- 
pense wdth  artifice.  Now,  in  French  dramatic 
art  one  can  never  forget  that  the  actor  is  acting. 
The  school  of  declamation  and  gesture  is  always 
before  us.  We  know  what  is  going  to  happen 
for  the  reason  that  we  know  what  ought  to  hap- 
pen. Genius  is  the  only  thing  that  can  afford  the 
luxmy  of  naturalness.  Duse  did  the  very  thing 
no  playgoer  expected  her  to  do.  And  so  did 
Salvini.  He  smprised  his  audiences  by  his  unique 
attitudes,  his  startling  gestures  and  passionate 
outbursts.  Scratch  a  Russian  and  you  will  find 
a  Tartar  and  a  mystic;  scratch  a  Frenchman  and 
you  will  find  a  critic  and  a  logician;   scratch  an 


128   THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Italian   and   you   will   find   an    artist    and   an 
actor. 

Never  did  I  realise  the  full  force  of  Italian  ex- 
pression until  I  witnessed  a  performance  of  Pon- 
chielli's  La  Gioconda  in  Rome  some  twenty  years 
ago,  with  Gemma  Bellincioni  in  the  leading  role. 
Previous  to  that  experience  I  considered  Lohen- 
grin the  final  attainment  of  expression  in  the 
realm  of  opera.  In  the  second  act  of  Lohengrin 
the  chorus  wafts  one  out  of  the  actual  into 
spaces  never  attained  before,  but  how  vague  and 
mystical  is  the  feeling  evoked!  It  is  a  meta- 
physical triumph  in  music  —  an  apotheosis  of 
hope  deferred,  desire  rendered  futile,  passion  ex- 
tenuated, vanity  stripped  of  illusion,  a  spiral 
symphony  of  sounds  gradually  mounting  towards 
the  summit  of  disillusionment,  and  the  higher  it 
mounts  the  further  it  recedes  from  human  senti- 
ment and  hxmian  passion.  In  the  great  chorus  of 
La  Gioconda  what  we  hear  in  the  music  is  not  a 
process  of  disillusionment  but  dissolution  itself. 
Here  we  are  not  listening  to  musical  metaphysics 
but  something  human,  far  beyond  the  power  of 
words  to  express.  Wagner  manipulates  the 
nerves  and  the  imagination,  Ponchielli  appeals  to 
reality.  By  a  tremendous  mass  of  concentrated 
melody,  in  which  there  is  nothing  tortuous  or 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  ITALY    129 

spiral,  he  lets  a  great  wave  of  emotion  descend 
like  an  avalanche  from  a  vast  height,  and  in  the 
midst  of  amazement  and  horror  the  voice  of  pity 
rises  superhumanly  serene  as  from  an  abyss  of 
tragedy.  Here  and  there  in  i3ischylus,  in  Euripi- 
des, in  Virgil  and  Dante,  in  Shakespeare,  in  the 
opening  lines  of  Shelley's  Queen  Mah,  and  in 
Goethe's  Faust  such  moments  are  achieved. 

What,  then,  is  the  secret  of  Italian  expression? 
Italian  art  has  never  left  the  real  to  grapple  with 
the  illusive.  German  romanticism  was  a  search 
after  the  romance  of  the  impossible.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  the  romantic  period  of  France. 
While  Northern  peoples  were  groping  about  for 
unknown  and  untried  ideals,  Italy  remained  her- 
self. Every  intelligent  Italian  is  well  endowed 
with  the  critical  faculty.  The  cultured  ItaHan 
possesses  taste,  the  quality  which,  according  to 
Haydn,  gave  Mozart  his  impeccable  charm. 
Italian  music  may  have  dull  and  monotonous 
moments,  but  nowhere,  even  in  the  old  Italian 
operas,  is  there  anything  to  match  Wagner  at 
his  worst. 

A  Frenchman  achieves  taste  through  a  sense 
of  reason.  There  is  sometliing  mathematical  in 
French  art.  In  Italy  taste  is  an  instinct.  An 
Italian  does  not  begin  to  criticise  until  he  begins 


I30    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

to  create.  Metaphysics  and  sentimentality  are 
inimical  to  taste,  and  German  philosophy,  like 
German  art  and  music,  has  represented  with 
but  few  exceptions  what  one  might  call  a  con- 
dition of  metaphysical  incoherence.  What,  it 
may  be  asked,  was  the  cause  of  German  roman- 
ticism? It  originated  from  a  want  of  social, 
philosophical,  and  aesthetic  repose.  Goethe  was 
suffering  from  severe  sentimental  agitation  when 
he  wrote  Werther.  Germany  first,  and  then 
France,  suffered  not  from  the  romance  of  art  and 
poetry  but  from  the  romance  of  neurasthenia. 
It  was  not  a  sane  and  vital  power  but  a  disease. 
Goethe  was  cured  of  it  later,  but  Victor  Hugo 
was  never  wholly  free.  In  the  meantime,  Italy 
began  to  be  agitated  politically,  while  remaining 
patient,  and  even  serene. 

The  smile  of  the  Italian  is  a  perpetual  peace- 
offering  for  the  repose  of  his  own  soul.  I  have 
already  discovered  in  this  smile,  at  certain  times, 
a  strange  mingling  of  cynicism  and  pity,  a  mingl- 
ing of  superhuman  patience  with  a  sense  of  the 
inevitable,  a  sense  of  inherent  beauty  struggling 
to  maintain  a  fitting  and  harmonious  exterior. 
It  is  sometimes  the  union  of  Macchiavellian  wis- 
dom, Dantesque  feeling,  and  whole  tomes  of 
other  things  never  expressed  in  poems,  novels,  or 


IMPRESSIONS   OF  ITALY    131 

dramas.  Nothing  but  the  most  complex  music 
could  translate  the  Italian  smile  into  audible 
expression.  Perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say 
that  it  does  duty  at  the  moment  where  language 
ceases  and  music  is  suggested.  Compared  with 
it  domes,  dramas,  operas,  and  architecture  take 
a  second  place,  for  these  things  are  the  products 
of  the  national  smile,  which,  I  am  convinced,  is 
as  old  as  Csesar,  and  must  have  lit  the  face  of 
Virgil  and  Mcecenas  at  the  banquets  of  Augustus. 


MATERIALISM   AND   CRIME 

WILL  materialism  bring  our  civilisation  to 
an  end,  or  will  crime  and  insanity  compel 
our  civilisation  to  get  rid  of  materialism?  The 
time  has  come  not  only  to  put  these  questions, 
but  have  them  answered.  They  are  questions, 
not  only  for  philosophers  and  politicians,  but  for 
the  people  who  call  themselves  "progressive" 
thinkers,  agnostic  scientists  without  a  fixed  be- 
lief, and  that  numerous  body  of  empirical  "re- 
searchers" who  dabble  in  various  quasi-scientific 
experiments  supposed  to  assist  the  mere  believer 
to  form  a  more  positive  and  comforting  concep- 
tion of  a  state  of  the  soul  after  death. 

Scepticism,  when  it  endures  beyond  two  gen- 
erations, ends  in  materialism. 

The  Greeks  and  the  Romans  became  decadent 
through  scepticism;  they  ended  in  national  dis- 
ruption because  there  was  no  faith  left  on  which 
to  build  anything,  and  crime  kept  pace  with 
progressive  decadence  until  there  was  no  place 
left  for  genius  and  philosophy,  and  the  arena  of 
politics    became    a    public    slaughter-house    for 


MATERIALISM  AND   CRIME     133 

murderers  and  criminals  of  every  description. 
Jerusalem,  Athens,  and  Rome  ended  in  material- 
ism; then  came  the  new  faith.  Christianity 
brought  with  it  a  new  ci\dlisation,  a  new  art,  and 
a  new  literature.  It  did  not  bring  a  new  philoso- 
phy; but  it  has  ended  by  introducing,  familiaris- 
ing, and  imposing  a  new  science. 

We  are  now  at  the  point  when,  leaving  out 
many  other  considerations,  we  have  to  ask:  Will 
nations  be  compelled  to  suppress  materialism  as 
they  are  suppressing  consumption,  or  will  the 
nations  end  in  an  orgy  of  crime? 

In  former  times  men  feared  a  God,  and  when 
they  ceased  to  fear  they  still  feared  death. 
Shakespeare  makes  Hamlet  soliloquise  about  the 
after-life,  and  he  frankly  admits  that  were  he 
assured  that  death  ends  all  he  would  put  an  end 
to  his  life  wdth  a  "bare  bodkin." 

No  one  can  doubt  the  affinity  existing  between 
murder  and  suicide,  both  being  in  many  cases 
the  result  of  mingled  scepticism  and  materiahsm. 

Germany  is  the  hot-bed  of  modern  materiahsm, 
and  in  no  other  country  are  there  so  many  sui- 
cides. Haeckel  attempts  to  explain  away  the 
universe  from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  without 
lea\ang  a  gleam  of  psychic  enUghtenment. 

There  are  times  when  I  consider  France  the 


134    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

mother  of  modern  materialism.  My  long  ac- 
quaintance with  French  philosophy,  with  French 
wit,  and  the  cynicism  of  the  boulevards,  gives  me 
authority  to  speak.  The  difference  between  Ger- 
man and  French  scepticism  is  the  difference 
between  science  and  art.  The  Germans  have  at- 
tacked spiritual  things  by  the  use  of  the  smelting 
pot,  the  French  by  logic.  The  Teuton  hits  with 
bars  of  pig-iron,  the  Gaul  with  rapiers  of  steel. 
It  requires  a  long  and  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  typical  wit  of  Berlin  and  Paris  to  pene- 
trate to  the  depths  of  their  shiftless  nescience. 
But  the  danger  of  French  materialists  lies  not 
so  much  in  their  method  as  in  their  manner. 
Voltaire  fooled  the  people  by  the  diamond  flash 
of  his  wit;  Gennan  sceptics  fool  the  people  by 
their  ponderosity.  German  science  is  the  pugil- 
ism of  the  intellect,  French  materiahsm  is  the 
neurosis  of  the  spirit. 

On  the  other  hand,  materialism  in  England  is 
the  product  of  three  centuries  of  unobstructed 
political  and  commercial  expansion;  it  has  de- 
veloped out  of  a  drowsy  and  stall-fed  optimism, 
imitating,  by  a  singular  stroke  of  destiny,  the 
lethargy  which  existed  in  Rome  just  before  the 
inrush  of  northern  hordes.  Materialism  in  Amer- 
ica is  largely  borrowed  from  Germany  because  it 


MATERIALISM  AND   CRIME     135 

looks  scientific,  from  France  because  it  smacks 
of  vdt,  and  from  England  because  it  is  fashionable. 
Our  civilisation  is  not  face  to  face  with  a  ques- 
tion of  religious  form,  but  a  question  of  far  greater 
importance.  We  have  to  face  the  fact  that  the 
church  a  man  belongs  to  counts  for  nothing  now; 
his  creed  matters  nothing,  one  way  or  the  other. 
What  does  matter  is  the  private  belief  of  the 
people.  The  question  used  to  be:  Do  you  belong 
to  some  religious  sect?  Business  men  used  to 
put  that  question  to  young  men  seeking  employ- 
ment. It  is  too  late  now  to  look  for  success  in 
any  such  vain  manoeuvring,  since  it  has  been 
amply  proved  that  professing  or  not  professing 
religion  makes  no  real  difference  in  the  general 
conduct  of  the  thing  called  business.  The  out- 
ward and  visible  form  has  ceased  to  count  for 
anything;  the  one  vital  point  to  be  considered 
is  the  secret  conviction  of  the  individual;  what 
do  all  the  millions  think  who  jostle  each  other  in 
the  street  every  day  —  the  soldiers,  the  sailors, 
the  clerks,  the  stockbrokers,  the  lawyers,  the 
judges  who  preside  at  great  trials,  the  bishops 
and  fashionable  clergymen,  the  professional  poli- 
ticians, the  lords  and  the  ladies  who  set  the 
fashions  and  who  hang  on  the  skirts  of  the  court: 
what  do  all  these  people  actually  think  about 


136    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

death  and  the  after-life?  Have  they  or  have 
they  not  got  a  conscience?  Do  they  stand  in 
legitimate  fear  of  anybody  or  anything?  If  not, 
all  alike  are  dangerous.  An  agnostic  bishop  is  as 
dangerous  to  a  community  as  a  traitor  in  a  high 
social  position,  and  far  worse  than  a  common 
murderer. 

A  man  who  does  not  believe  he  has  a  soul  is  a 
man  who  does  not  believe  I  have  a  soul,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  stop  him  but  fear  of  the  law. 
So  long  as  he  escapes  the  law  he  cares  for  no  one. 
Why  should  he  fear  conscience  if  death  is  the 
end  of  consciousness?  Christian  civilisation  has 
been  descending  lower  and  lower  for  a  period  of 
four  centuries.  It  used  to  occupy  the  roof  of  a 
sort  of  tower  of  Babel  which  looked  towards  the 
stars.  There  was  air,  space,  vision.  Civilisation 
and  barbarism  are  now  separated  by  a  few  laws, 
a  few  conventions,  one  or  two  ideals,  and  a  single 
religion.  To-day  nothing  but  a  hatch  separates 
us  from  primitive  barbarism.  Underneath  is  the 
lair  of  the  wild  beast,  whose  growls  are  as  audible 
and  menacing  as  were  those  of  the  old  Roman 
arena  when  Rome  thirsted  for  human  blood. 

It  must  be  evident  to  anyone  who  gives  the 
subject  a  moment's  serious  thought  that  no  sane 
man  who  is  a  believer  in  the  immortality  of  the 


MATERIALISM  AND   CRIME     137 

soul  would  commit  a  murder  in  cold  blood.  Nor 
would  anyone  who  believes  in  a  return  of  the 
dead  ever  think  of  murdering  anyone.  Nor  is 
the  question  confined  to  murder:  all  the  greater 
crimes  are  influenced  more  or  less  by  a  man's 
secret  beliefs.  There  never  was  a  time  when  so 
many  officers  in  Germany  and  France  have  tried 
to  sell  their  country  for  "a  mess  of  pottage";  it 
is  the  spirit  of  materialism,  which  urges  such 
people  on  to  reap  what  pleasures  they  may  be- 
fore death  arrives. 

We  may  be  at  the  beginning  of  a  reign  of  a 
state  of  affairs  the  like  of  which  the  world  has 
never  known,  a  state  of  things  which  may  cause 
a  pandemonium  of  unrelenting  fury  in  which  all 
the  so-called  Christian  nations,  become  material- 
istic at  heart,  after  playing  at  hypocrisy  so  long, 
will  throw  off  their  masks  and  engage  in  an  Ar- 
mageddon of  slaughter  in  which  the  thing  called 
humanity  will  have  no  part,  in  which  the  total 
destruction  of  commercial  rivals  will  be  the  only 
incentive  and  the  only  aim.  And  the  soldiers 
most  likely  to  win  in  the  final  rounding  up  are 
the  Russians  in  Europe,  the  Turks  in  the  Near 
East,  and  the  yellow  races  in  the  Far  East.  Be- 
cause these  people  still  beheve  they  have  souls. 
They  are  not  afraid  to  die.    The  materialist  hates 


138    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

to  die,  although  he  may  not  fear  death.  His 
desire  is  to  live  as  long  as  he  can  and  enjoy  all 
he  can. 

And  not  only  this,  but  there  is  likely  to  come 
a  time,  and  that  before  very  long,  when  the 
soldiers  of  the  sceptical  nations  will  refuse  to 
fight;  the  feeling  of  patriotism  will  evaporate. 
When  this  happens  they  will  feel  as  if  one  ruler 
is  as  good  as  another  —  a  Czar  of  Russia  would 
prove  as  welcome  as  a  King  of  England  or  an 
Emperor  of  Germany. 

While  the  Continental  nations  like  Germany 
and  France  have  been  made  materialistic  by 
science,  England  and  America  have  been  made 
so  by  a  sentimental  form  of  religion,  with  science 
and  commercialism  as  props.  We  are  an  emo- 
tional people  with  sentimental  whims,  seldom 
able  to  give  a  sound  reason  for  believing  in  any- 
thing, because  sentimentalism  and  soimd  sense 
do  not  dwell  together.  This  being  so,  there  is 
a  rude  awakening  in  store  for  the  Anglo-Saxon 
sentimentalist.  In  the  hour  of  inexorable  crime 
and  universal  upheaval  all  the  sentimentalisms 
of  the  present  would  go  as  chaff  in  a  whirlwind. 
The  sentimental  materialists,  without  real  faith 
in  anything  or  anybody,  would  fail  to  render  the 
people  any  real  courage  or  consolation. 


MATERIALISM  AND   CRIME     139 

That  our  civilisation  is  becoming  more  and 
more  materialistic  is  proved  by  the  astounding 
nimiber  of  child  suicides  which  occur  year  after 
year.  Two  or  three  decades  ago  child  suicides 
were  rarely  known.  Tliis  state  of  things  is  the 
result  of  the  first  harvest  of  our  materiahstic 
sowing,  and  a  curious  phase  of  the  union  of 
materialism  and  sentimentality  is  the  hatred  of 
authority  which  the  combination  so  often  pro- 
duces. Children  left  to  their  own  wliims  and 
devices  turn  out  unrelenting  free-will  sentimen- 
talists. The  wonder  is  that  more  suicides  do  not 
occur,  and  if  blood-crimes  do  not  increase  under 
our  present  mode  of  ci\ilisation  it  will  be  still 
more  w'onderful.  One  characteristic  of  murder 
is  its  frequent  concurrence  with  suicide.  Whole 
families  often  disappear  instead  of  a  single  mem- 
ber, and  double  suicides  are  too  frequent  to  cause 
any  unusual  comment.  We  are  growing  used  to 
horrors.  And  what  is  still  more  curious,  from 
lack  of  real  ordeals  produced  by  prolonged  wars, 
people  gloat  over  sordid  crimes  and  vulgar  crim- 
inals as  they  never  did  in  former  days.  A  murder 
mystery  gives  profound  satisfaction.  The  most 
stimulating  and  melodramatic  murders  now  oc- 
cur in  England  and  America,  the  two  most  "re- 
ligious" and  sentimental  countries  in  the  world; 


I40    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

also  the  two  nations  where  the  dollar  is  most 
worshipped. 

The  void  left  by  the  passing  of  heroic  emotions 
is  filled  by  the  horrible,  the  monstrous,  and  the 
sadic.  Geneva,  the  greatest  stronghold  of  sec- 
tarian religion  in  the  world,  is  now  to  become  an 
arena  for  the  Spanish  bull-fight.  And  yet  senti- 
mentalists tell  us  that  the  passing  of  war  means 
the  arrival  of  the  millennium.  From  having  been 
heroic  we  have  grown  pusillanimous,  superstitious, 
and  cruel.    We  seek  horrors  instead  of  heroes. 

Another  astonishing  thing  in  this  so-called 
scientific  age  is  the  prevalence  of  superstition. 
With  all  our  science  we  were  never  so  steeped  in 
the  slough  of  superstitious  isms.  We  pretend  to 
be  agnostics  and  sceptics,  while  a  cheap  irony 
covers  great  chasms  of  fear,  apprehension,  and 
dread.  Irony  may  fool  a  good  many  people  in 
the  beginning,  but  nothing  so  soon  wears  out.  It 
is  the  one  thing  which  is  powerless  to  produce 
anything.  It  became  fashionable  at  the  break-up 
of  the  Victorian  era,  when  the  old  Pickwickian 
humour  had  run  its  course  and  the  creative 
faculty  was  as  good  as  dead.  When  we  become 
impoverished  in  pocket  we  buy  the  cheapest 
stuffs,  when  we  become  impoverished  in  mind  we 
use  the  cheapest  phrases,  when  we  become  bank- 


MATERIALISM  AND   CRIME     141 

rupt  in  morals  we  hide  the  nudity  of  our  souls  in 
ironic  platitudes. 

Irony  is  the  bluntest  arrow  in  the  quiver  of  our 
ineffectual  lucifers,  who  might  rise  to  a  terrestrial 
heaven  if  their  ^ings,  like  their  weapons,  were 
not  made  of  goose  quills.  Underneath  all  the 
persiflage  is  the  haunting  fear  of  final  collapse, 
for  with  the  vanishing  of  the  religious  spirit  there 
seems  to  be  no  place  left  for  a  sense  of  the  higher 
mystical  forces  of  the  universe.  There  is  but  one 
thing  that  can  Uf  t  people  and  nations  above  the 
sordid  and  the  sensational,  and  that  is  a  high 
order  of  mystical  optimism  which  shall  take  the 
place  of  materiaHstic  rehgion  and  materiahstic 
science. 

A  great  revival  of  art,  poetry,  and  Hterature 
will  not  be  possible  until  a  new  religious  spirit 
pervades  the  world. 


HAMPTON   COURT  AND 
VERSAILLES 

THE  history  of  Hampton  Court  is  that  of  a 
thousand  dreams  and  a  thousand  illusions. 
In  Henry  VIII's  time  it  had  a  thousand  rooms 
and  a  thousand  bay-windows,  and  Henry  had  a 
retinue  of  a  thousand  persons. 

Cardinal  Wolsey  built  Hampton  Court,  but 
Henry  made  it  famous;  and  more  of  the  business 
of  state  was  transacted  there  than  in  any  other 
place  during  his  reign. 

With  Wolsey  began  the  pomp  and  magnificence. 
The  great  Cardinal's  ambition  was  to  make 
Hampton  Court  a  unique  place  of  entertainment 
and  festivity;  and  this  he  accomplished  by 
"feasting  all  ambassadors  of  foreign  potentates," 
says  Cavendish,  a  gentleman  of  Wolsey's  house- 
hold. Indeed,  it  was  even  then  considered  a  royal 
dwelling,  for  the  Cardinal's  creation  was  always 
resorted  to  as  "a  king's  house  with  noblemen 
and  gentlemen,  with  coming  and  going  in  and  out, 
feasting  and  banqueting  these  ambassadors  di- 
vers tunes  and  all  others  right  nobly." 

Several  times  a  year  Henry  VIII  repaired  to 


HAMPTON  COURT  143 

the  Cardinal's  house,  and  on  each  occasion  ''there 
wanted  no  preparations  or  goodly  furniture, 
with  viands  of  the  finest  sort  that  could  be  gotten 
for  money  or  friendship."  Imagination  was  set 
to  work  to  invent  new  pleasures;  suppers, 
masques,  and  mummeries  were  devised  in  so 
gorgeous  and  costly  a  manner  that  nothing  equal 
to  the  magnificence  was  ever  seen  in  Europe. 
The  fairest  ladies  of  the  realm  were  invited  to 
dance  with  the  maskers,  and  the  music  provided 
must  have  been  wonderfully  original  and  eft'ective. 
It  was  not  enough  that  the  King  was  often 
entertained  in  this  way;  an  impulse  would  seize 
him  to  go  to  Hampton  Court,  and  he  would 
arrive  by  water,  secretly,  without  the  slightest 
noise,  masked,  and  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of 
maskers,  dressed  Hke  shepherds,  with  garments 
of  fine  cloth  of  gold  and  crimson  satin  "paned," 
and  -with  beards  of  fine  gold  or  silver  wire.  With 
these  came  torch-bea,rers  and  drummers.  When 
they  had  landed  guns  were  fired  off  and  the  noble- 
men and  officers  of  the  Palace  roused  Wolsey, 
who,  pretending  ignorance  of  the  King's  arrival, 
desired  the  Lord  Chamberlain  to  see  what  was 
the  cause  of  the  commotion;  on  looking  out  of 
the  windows  near  the  river-bank,  the  crowd  in 
masks  was  discovered  approaching.    The  Cardi- 


144    TllE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

nal,  pretending  to  take  them  for  ambassadors 
from  some  foreign  prince,  gave  orders  for  them 
to  be  received  in  the  hall,  afterwards  to  be  con- 
ducted to  the  banqueting-room.  When  all  the 
maskers  had  come  in  the  King  pulled  down  his 
visor  and  disclosed  his  presence  to  the  joy  of  all 
the  company.  Wolsey  invited  the  King  to  take 
the  "place  of  estate,"  which  he  did  after  exchang- 
ing his  dress  for  rich  and  princely  garments. 

In  the  meantime  the  table  was  spread  again 
with  new  and  perfumed  cloths,  when  a  fresh 
banquet  of  "two  hundred  divers  dishes  of  won- 
drous devices  and  subtleties"  was  served. 

The  greatest  occasion  of  all  during  the  days  of 
Wolsey  was  the  splendid  reception  of  the  em- 
bassage of  eighty  French  noblemen  headed  by  Du 
Bellay  and  Anne  de  Montmorency.  For  this 
reception  and  feast  scores  of  caterers  and  pur- 
veyors were  sent  out  to  bring  in  all  the  expert 
cooks  and  culinary  artists  they  could  find  in  Lon- 
don or  elsewhere  to  concoct  new  and  fantastic 
dishes. 

The  cooks  worked  day  and  night  to  provide  a 
feast  such  as  had  never  been  seen,  "where  lacked 
neither  gold,  silver,  nor  any  costly  thing  meet 
for  the  purpose."  Hundreds  of  yeomen  and 
grooms  were  kept  busy  fitting  the  different  cham- 


HAMPTON  COURT  145 

bers  and  halls  with  costly  hangings  and  beds  of 
silk.  For  weeks  Hampton  Court  was  invaded  by 
an  army  of  carpenters,  masons,  painters,  and 
artificers  of  every  description.  Two  hundred  and 
eighty  extra  beds  were  provided  for  the  foreign 
visitors,  and  such  a  carrying  of  gold  and  silver 
plate  to  and  fro,  such  a  tramping  up  and  down, 
in  and  out,  was  never  seen,  even  in  a  king's 
palace. 

When  the  memorable  day  came  the  French 
embassy  arrived  long  before  the  hour  of  their 
appointment,  but  Wolsey's  wit  was  equal  to  the 
occasion;  he  caused  them  to  ride  to  Hanworth, 
a  royal  park  three  miles  away,  there  to  hunt 
until  evening,  when  they  returned  to  Hampton 
Court,  and  each  guest  was  shown  to  a  separate 
chamber  "ha\ing  a  great  fire  and  wine  for  their 
comfort  and  rehef,  remaining  there  till  the  great 
banquet  was  ready." 

The  principal  waiting-room  was  hung  with 
rich  arras,  as  were  all  others,  one  better  than 
another,  with  tall  yeomen  waiting  ready  to  serve; 
great  tables  were  spread,  and  a  cupboard  as  long 
as  the  room  was  laden  with  v.'hite  plate,  with 
four  huge  plates  of  polished  silver,  set  to  reflect 
the  great  wax  candles.  But  in  the  "chamber  of 
presence"  there  was  a  smnptuous  cloth  of  estate, 


146    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

with  many  goodly  gentlemen  to  serve;  and  again 
a  cupboard  as  long  as  the  whole  room,  the  five 
top  shelves  filled  with  burnished  silver  plate,  the 
lowest  one  garnished  with  massive  gold,  with 
immense  candlesticks  of  gilt  containing  wax 
lights  as  big  as  torches.  The  whole  place  dazzled 
and  glittered  with  light  and  radiance  —  the 
plates  of  silver  that  hung  on  the  walls  had  in 
them  huge  perchers  of  burning  wax,  the  immense 
chimneys  were  ablaze  with  flame. 

At  last,  everything  being  ready,  the  officers 
caused  the  trumpeters  to  warn  to  supper.  Then 
officers  were  sent  to  conduct  the  French  guests 
to  the  halls  appointed  for  the  banquet,  and  no 
sooner  were  they  all  seated  than  up  came  dishes 
of  such  "costly  subtleties  and  abundance"  that 
the  Frenchmen,  as  it  seemed  "were  rapt  in  a 
heavenly  paradise."  Before  the  second  course 
the  Lord  Cardinal  came  in,  booted  and  spurred, 
and  every  one  rising  in  his  place  Wolsey  was 
greeted  with  an  acclamation  of  joy.  The  Car- 
dinal called  for  a  chair,  and  seating  himself  in 
the  midst  of  the  high  table  he  made  merry  with 
the  rest  of  the  company. 

The  second  course,  consisting  of  a  hundred 
dishes,  was  now  served,  and  caused  the  foreign- 
ers to  stare  with  wonder:  there  were  dishes  rep- 


HAMPTON  COURT  147 

resenting  castles,  churches,  beasts,  birds,  fowls, 
and  personages  —  some  fighting  with  swords, 
some  with  guns  and  cross-bows,  some  vaulting 
and  leaping,  some  dancing  with  ladies,  others  on 
horses  in  complete  harness,  justing  with  long 
sharp  spears.  Then  Wolsey  took  a  bowl  of  gold 
filled  with  hippocras,  and  taking  off  his  cap  drank 
to  King  Henry  and  then  to  the  King  of  France, 
after  which  it  is  not  surprising  that  many  of  the 
Frenchmen  were  "fain  to  be  led  to  their  beds." 

The  Cardinal,  who  had  eaten  nothing  yet, 
retired  to  his  own  apartment,  divested  himself 
of  his  spurs  and  boots,  had  supper  alone,  then 
returned  to  the  banquet-hall  among  his  guests. 

During  this  time  hundreds  of  yeomen  and 
lackeys  were  busy  carrying  to  the  chambers  of 
the  guests  basins  and  ewers  of  silver,  great  livery 
pots  of  wine  and  beer,  bowls  and  goblets  of  silver 
and  gilt,  silver  candlesticks,  with  both  white  and 
yellow  lights  of  three  sizes,  staff  torches  of  wax, 
fine  manchets,  and  cheat  loaves.  And  in  spite  of 
every  room  being  furnished  in  this  manner 
throughout  all  the  house  the  cupboards  in  the 
two  banqueting-halls  were  not  once  touched. 

These  displays,  however,  were  even  surpassed 
by  the  gorgeous  train  of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries 
connected   with   the   Cardinal's   chapel   in   the 


148    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

Palace.  He  had  a  dean  and  a  sub-dean,  Len 
priests,  a  choir  of  twenty-two  men  and  boys; 
and  in  a  procession  through  the  hall  a  hundred 
rich  copes  and  other  vestments  might  be  counted; 
while  he  had  for  his  daily  life  twelve  gentlemen 
ushers,  six  gentlemen  waiters  for  his  private 
chamber,  and  nine  lords,  with  two  servants  to 
wait  on  each,  without  counting  forty  other  cup- 
bearers, carvers,  and  sewers,  six  yeomen  ushers, 
eight  grooms  of  the  chamber,  sixteen  doctors  and 
chaplains,  two  secretaries,  three  clerks,  and  four 
counsellors  at  law. 

A  gifted  historian  has  drawn  a  picture  of  the 
Court  of  the  great  Cardinal.  "Nobles  vied  with 
each  other  in  the  splendour  of  their  retinue; 
poets,  painters,  and  musicians  were  called  upon 
to  entertain  the  royal  guest;  and  in  the  midst 
of  these  gorgeous  festivities  Henry  and  his  young 
wife  sat  in  the  balconies  or  paraded  in  the  gardens 
like  Amadis  and  Oriana,  the  magnets  to  which 
every  eye  was  attracted.  The  old  romances,  with 
their  endless  legends  of  enchanted  castles,  haunted 
and  trackless  wildernesses,  cruel  sorcerers,  valiant 
knights,  and  devoted  damsels,  were  the  fashion- 
able reading  of  the  day,  and  it  was  not  undig- 
nified for  bishops  and  statesmen  to  compose 
masques  and  melodramas." 


HAMPTON  COURT  149 

In  1529  Wolsey's  fate  was  sealed. 

"His  misfortunes  are  such,"  said  the  French 
ambassador,  "that  his  enemies,  even  though  they 
were  Englishmen,  could  not  fail  to  pity  him." 

As  soon  as  the  great  Cardinal  had  breathed  his 
last  Henry  VIII  began  to  make  additions  to  the 
Palace.  He  built  a  tennis-court,  a  bowling-alley, 
and  the  splendid  hall  in  the  clock-court,  the  last 
of  the  mediaeval  creations  of  its  kind,  with  its 
magnificent  single  hammer-beam  roof,  of  seven 
compartments. 

Henry  spent  his  time  in  hunting,  gaming,  and 
making  love;  one  queen  succeeded  another  in 
rapid  succession,  tragedy  followed  comedy;  and 
in  the  most  romantic  and  delightful  of  spots  his 
Kfe  became  a  round  of  merry  jesting,  interspersed 
with  theological  discussions  and  political  intrigue. 

At  Hampton  Court,  in  1537,  Edward  VI  was 
born,  and  his  mother,  Jane  Seymour,  died;  and 
here,  three  years  later,  the  ill-starred  Catherine 
Howard  took  her  place;  here,  in  1543,  Henry 
married  Catherine  Parr;  and  here  Edward  the 
boy-king  alighted  like  a  phantom  of  royalty,  pass- 
ing away  before  he  was  old  enough  to  realise  the 
serene  and  placid  beauty  of  the  place. 

Here,  on  Christmas  Day,  ISIary  Tudor  enter- 


ISO    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

tained  her  fickle  Spanish  consort,  Philip,  at  a 
wonderful  banquet,  when  the  great  hall  shone 
with  a  thousand  fantastic  lamps  flickering  in  a 
mellow  glow  over  a  sea  of  orange  and  opal,  when 
Elizabeth,  the  future  queen,  supped  at  the  royal 
table,  and  was  served  later  with  "a  perfumed 
napkin  and  a  plate  of  confects  by  the  noble  Lord 
Paget,"  retiring  to  her  own  apartments  before 
the  revels  and  masques  of  that  romantic  and 
memorable  night. 

To  Hampton  Court  came  Charles  I,  in  1625, 
to  escape  the  plague  then  ravishing  London;  and 
he  returned  again  twenty-two  years  later  as  a 
prisoner,  escorted  by  soldiers,  to  make  his  escape 
three  months  later  for  a  brief  respite  between 
Hampton  and  the  headsman  at  Whitehall. 

Here  Charles  II  spent  his  honeymoon,  and 
James  II  created  a  scandal  by  publicly  receiving 
the  Pope's  Nuncio,  and  here  the  unromantic 
Queen  Anne  was  wont  to  drink  tea  and  take 
counsel  from  her  ministers;  and  Alexander  Pope, 
while  taking  his  accustomed  promenades  with 
the  beautiful  Lady  Hervey,  embellished  the  con- 
versation by  witty  phrases  and  poetic  couplets. 

Ambrosial  was  the  epithet  Byron  applied  to 
the  region  about  Hampton  Court,  Richmond, 


HAMPTON   COURT  151 

and  Twickenham,  while  Chateaubriand  called 
it  a  "terrestrial  paradise."  Hampton  Court, 
situated  on  the  Thames  half-way  between  London 
and  Windsor,  is  the  gem  of  this  terrestrial  para- 
dise, the  one  locahty  in  England  without  a 
rival. 

Old  houses  and  palaces  charm,  not  by  their 
cost,  nor  even  by  the  people  who  have  lived  in 
them,  but  by  that  rare  and  inscrutable  combina- 
tion of  mystery,  beauty,  and  illusion  formed  by 
a  long  series  of  historical  events,  ending  at  last 
in  what  may  be  termed  the  romantic  and  personal 
associations  of  the  place.  There  are  old  sites 
which  possess  every  thing  needful  save  one:  the 
magical  ingredient  best  described  by  the  word 
''atmosphere."  Hence  their  bricks  and  stones 
seem  bare,  their  towers  bleak  and  barren;  and 
their  grounds  may  be  elaborate  and  costly,  yet 
iminteresting.  We  visit  them  but  once.  From 
no  point  of  view  does  Hampton  Court  Palace 
suggest  a  quasi-ruin  stripped  of  its  glories.  Never 
does  it  hint  at  fire  or  famine,  having  passed 
through  wars,  revolutions,  and  centuries  of  social 
change  without  being  touched  by  mobs  or  bullets. 
It  is  a  region  of  stately  parks  shrouded  in  dreamy 
enchantment,  the  limpid  atmosphere  often  as 
mellow  and  serene  as  that  of  an  Indian  summer. 


152    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

About  these  old  brick  walls  you  will  find  no 
pretentious  ornaments.  It  is  the  art  of  being 
impressive  without  pretension.  The  whole  place, 
with  its  buildings,  courts,  passages,  halls,  gar- 
dens, flowers,  trees,  and  terraces,  seems  to  have 
sprung  from  a  dream  of  fairyland;  for  the  on- 
looker is  never  made  conscious  of  the  efforts  of  the 
architect,  the  decorator,  the  professional  restorer 
of  cracked  walls  and  crumbling  towers.  It  has 
a  naive  dignity  of  its  own  which  the  lover  of 
Nature  has  seen  nowhere  else. 

An  immense  fan-shaped  garden,  with  lawns  as 
soft  and  compact  as  a  cloth  of  velvet,  sprinkled 
with  small  white  daisies,  dotted  here  and  there 
with  yellow  buttercups,  in  keeping  with  the 
mediaeval  simplicity  of  everything,  is  bordered 
and  set  off  by  rows  of  yew  as  old  as  the  place 
itself,  the  S5aTibolical  tree  of  the  primitive  bards 
and  mystics.  And  they  are  in  their  proper  ele- 
ment here,  in  front  of  the  great  brick  pile,  their 
deep  green  forming  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
airy  Ughtness  of  the  rows  of  willowy  lime  behind 
them.  And  what  incomparable  avenues  of  limes 
these  are !  No  other  tree  would  look  so  well  here : 
the  leaf  of  the  elm  is  too  small  and  compact,  the 
foliage  of  the  chestnut  too  luxuriant  and  opaque, 
the  branches  of  the   sycamore    too   sparse  to 


HAMPTON  COURT  153 

harmonise  with  the  peculiar  beauty  and  serene 
blithesomeness  of  Hampton  Court. 

Its  flowers  and  flower-beds  are  unrivalled  in 
Europe;  the  eye  is  bewildered,  not  so  much  by 
the  colours  as  by  the  groupings  of  colour  —  the 
artless  beauty  everywhere  displayed. 

The  matchless  simplicity  of  arrangement  seems 
careless,  but  in  reality  it  is  the  result  of  science 
and  natural  art. 

Great  scarlet  poppies,  on  long  stems,  droop 
over  pillows  of  yellow  pansies  or  beds  of  deep 
velvety  purple,  the  faces  all  turned  one  way, 
with  pale  saffron  eyes  fixed  on  the  sun.  The 
colours  of  May  are  somewhat  flamboyant,  but 
June  ushers  in  the  ochre  and  the  amber,  the 
mediaeval  yellows,  in  keeping  with  the  dull  red- 
dish brick  and  the  old  walls,  with  their  flat  coping- 
stones,  devoid  of  ostentation.  And  June  brings 
the  rose,  here  to  be  seen  everywhere,  in  beds  and 
clinging  all  about  the  walls,  as  far  as  one  can  see, 
mingled  with  a  hundred  other  shapes  and  hues. 
And  the  long,  old  walls  and  borders  festooned 
with  trailing  vines,  heavy  with  scented  bloom, 
present,  in  August,  a  picture  of  all  the  hues  of 
red,  pink,  and  scarlet,  interspersed  with  mauve 
and  saffron  and  clusters  of  white  lilies,  all  brought 
to  the  utmost  perfection  of  tint  and  form. 


154    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

A  bewitching  simplicity  in  park  and  garden 
adds  an  indefinable  element  to  the  historical 
associations  of  site  and  structure.  It  gives  to 
the  ensemble  an  air  of  poetic  refinement,  a  natu- 
ral grace  to  be  met  with  nowhere  else.  Indeed, 
the  best  art  is  achieved  solely  through  the  aban- 
donment of  the  artist  to  his  inspirations;  in  his 
work  he  must  imagine  himself  free,  even  if  he  is 
not.  And  Wolsey,  in  building  Hampton  Court, 
must  have  been  impelled  to  the  task  as  by  a  de- 
cree of  fate.  The  longer  one  meditates  on  the 
unique  beauty  of  the  whole  the  more  one  realises 
the  ennobling  quality  of  this  beauty;  the  more 
one  considers  its  imminent  meaning  in  the  scheme 
of  things,  its  satisfying  influence,  and  its  universal 
relation  to  art,  history,  religion,  and  romance,  the 
greater  will  be  the  feeling  of  gratitude  to  this  man 
who  abandoned  himself  to  the  conception  and 
execution  of  a  work  which  has  given  instruction 
and  delight  to  artists  and  lovers  of  Nature  for 
nearly  four  centuries. 

The  two  chief  things  which  give  this  Tudor 
palace  its  peculiar  charm  are  its  red  brick  and  its 
quaint  forms.  The  new  part,  erected  in  imitation 
of  Versailles  by  William  III,  is  not  without  its 
charm,  and  the  two  palaces  do  not  conflict,  in 
spite  of  the  difference  in  period  and  architecture. 


VERSAILLES  155 

But,  fortunately  for  lovers  of  the  natural,  William 
did  not  succeed  in  turning  Hampton  Court  into 
an  English  Versailles.  At  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV 
things  were  made  to  shine  and  dazzle.  Art  be- 
came fantastic  and  superficial.  Caprice  and  con- 
vention usurped  the  place  of  the  natural  and  the 
intimate. 

The  fetes  champctres  of  Watteau  depict  the  life 
and  sentiment  of  Versailles;  the  pictures  of 
Claude  Lorraine  suggest  the  atmosphere  of 
Hampton  Court.  The  first  expressed  the  Gallic 
spirit  of  the  time,  beginning  wath  the  founding 
of  Versailles  and  lasting  till  the  romantic  period 
of  1830,  when  Hugo,  inspired  by  Chateaubriand, 
brought  new  life  to  French  art  and  literature. 
The  types  of  the  Watteau  period  are  symbolised 
by  Louis  XIV  at  its  beginning  and  by  Marie 
Antoinette  at  its  close.  We  know  all  about  them; 
there  are  no  illusions,  because  there  was  no  poetry. 
Under  Louis  thought  was  didactic  and  formal: 
Labruyere  was  the  polished  essayist.  La  Roche- 
foucauld the  trenchant  wit,  Racine  the  elegant 
weaver  of  the  "alexandrine,"  Conde  the  polite 
hero,  Madame  de  Maintenon  the  inflexible  hero- 
ine. With  but  few  exceptions  every  one,  from 
the  King  to  the  head  cook,  seemed  to  belong  to 
one  family.    There  were  rules  for  walking,  talk- 


156    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

ing,  eating,  sitting,  yawning,  bowing,  and  back- 
ing out.  Louis  himself  was  afraid  to  peep  from 
his  bed-curtains  in  the  morning  to  address  a  ser- 
vant without  first  donning  his  pompous  wig. 

How  different  were  people  and  things  at 
Hampton ! 

Wolsey  began  by  being  original;  Henry  VIII 
lived  his  own  life;  Mary,  the  vehement  mystic, 
with  her  mind  made  up,  followed;  and  Elizabeth 
succeeded  with  a  long  period  of  stately  and  ro- 
mantic triumphs.  Every  one  of  these  lived  an 
individual  life  and  copied  no  one.  And  somehow 
they  managed  to  leave  natural  things  as  they 
found  them.  At  Hampton  Court  they  had  the 
good  sense  to  assist  Nature ;  at  Versailles  Nature 
was  trimmed  and  suppressed.  The  laws  of  land- 
scape harmony  are  as  absolute  as  those  of  music. 
The  romantic  mood  framed  in  renascent  art,  ex- 
pressed in  such  perfection  at  Hampton,  is  not  the 
result  of  fancy  or  caprice;  plays,  pictures,  and 
palaces  do  not  happen  to  be  romantic  or  poetic; 
and,  reason  about  it  as  we  may,  these  buildings, 
avenues,  trees,  and  flowers  are  what  we  see  them 
because  of  an  innate  harmony  of  object  and  senti- 
ment. Everything  at  Hampton  Court  is  in  keep- 
ing with  the  things  that  surround  it,  fitting  the 
ensemble  of  earth,  sky,  and  water.    No  wonder 


VERSAILLES  157 

it  is  a  paradise  of  feathered  hosts!  The  song  of 
birds,  the  ripple  of  brooks,  the  Svvish  of  winds  in 
the  tree-tops  satisfy  the  musician,  while  the  mel- 
low tints  in  field,  atmosphere,  and  forest  satisfy 
the  artist. 

There  is  consolation  in  the  soft,  wistful  serenity 
of  this  extraordinary  union  of  mediaevalism  and 
modernity,  a  satisfying  sense  of  the  eternal  in  all 
this  romance  of  artless  art,  an  inexorable  calm 
in  the  long,  stately  avenues  bordered  with  giant 
hmes,  leading  the  eye  to  other  vistas  too  distant 
to  distinguish  anything  but  a  soft  veil  of  indefin- 
able blue.  The  use  of  the  yard-measure  is  here 
never  apparent.  Versailles  perfected  conven- 
tional art  and  conventional  forms.  The  witty 
took  the  place  of  the  poetic,  mechanical  phrases 
the  place  of  natural  sentiment.  It  seems  as  if 
the  French  nobles,  artists,  and  architects  con- 
spired together  to  force  Nature  to  walk  on  stilts. 
There  is  not  a  trace  of  romantic  mediaevalism,  not 
a  suggestion  of  poetic  mysticism,  not  a  corner  left 
anywhere  for  the  display  of  spontaneous  beauty. 
The  structure  of  the  Chateau  forbids  any  illusion 
suggested  by  form.  Nor  is  its  history  more  than 
a  development  of  sordid  Court  intrigues,  ending 
with  the  scandal  of  the  diamond  necklace.  The 
truth  is,  at  Versailles  kings,  queens,  and  courtiers 


158    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

were  stage  performers  in  what  looks  to  us  now  as 
a  comedy  of  errors  which  only  once  bordered  on 
tragedy :  when  the  hungry  hordes  of  Paris  arrived 
at  the  gates  with  spikes  garnished  with  human 
heads.  They  were  puppets  skilled  in  the  etiquette 
of  the  table,  the  chase,  and  the  minuet,  the  whole 
spiced  with  wit  and  flavoured  with  epigram. 

As  the  Versailles  of  the  Capets  was  made  up 
of  people  who  were  always  rehearsing  a  political 
or  social  role,  Hampton  Court,  in  the  days  of  the 
Tudors,  and  even  at  later  periods,  was  the  home 
of  characters.  Henry,  Mary,  and  Elizabeth  stood 
boldly  for  what  they  were:  strong  or  weak,  wise 
or  foolish.  And  with  what  pomp  Wolsey  un- 
rolled the  pageant  from  the  wheels  of  time  by 
erecting  Hampton  Court  for  the  unimagined 
dramas  of  the  epoch,  consecrating  it,  by  every 
device  of  naive  wonder  and  art,  to  the  exigent 
mysteries  of  the  future,  with  its  mediaeval  ban- 
queting-hall,  its  dream-like  chapel,  its  red-brick 
turrets  and  towers,  lattice  and  oriel  windows,  the 
most  quaint  and  bewitching  ever  conceived  by 
architect  or  poet.  Here,  romance,  pageant,  and 
poetry  were  one.  Wolsey  was  both  last  and  first 
—  he  brought  media^vahsm  to  a  close  and  ushered 
in  the  English  renascence.  Hampton  Court  and 
Elizabeth  made  the  Shakespearian  era  possible. 


HAMPTON    COURT  159 

Wolsey  cast  over  it  a  glamour  which  time 
cannot  dim,  Henry  VIII  immortalised  it  with  his 
fatal  whims  and  some  of  the  grimmest  dramas 
of  the  English  Reformation,  Mary  by  her  senti- 
mental and  religious  vehemence,  Elizabeth  by 
the  ardent  glow  of  heroic  and  passionate  romance, 
while  Shakespeare  affixed  his  magic  seal  to  the 
triumphs  and  tragedies  of  the  whole  Tudor 
dynasty. 


I 


GEORGE  BERNARD   SHAW 

T  is  interesting  to  note  that  both  in  England 
and  America  humour  is  losing  itself  in  wit  and 
wit  in  cynicism.  Material  success  added  a  bitter 
drop  to  Mark  Twain's  humour,  and  the  same 
kind  of  success  has  added  a  taste  of  hyssop  to  the 
medicinal  catnip,  snap-dragon,  and  hellebore  of 
Mr.  Bernard  Shaw's  genius.  But  the  most 
curious  thing  of  all  is  the  fact  that  G.  B.  S.  ex- 
pects to  win  people  to  Socialism  by  a  sting-bee 
process  instead  of  by  pleasant  potions  of  honey 
from  the  common  hive.  Perhaps  he  is  imitating 
the  tactics  of  Disraeli,  who  understood  the  crowd 
and  used  his  wit  as  a  fanning  machine  to  clear 
the  way  to  the  goal  of  his  choice,  who  stood  just 
outside  the  political  circus,  hailed  the  idlers  and 
clubmen  by  clever  antics,  filled  his  tent  at  the 
side-show,  and  then  began  a  bare-back  perform- 
ance in  a  ring  in  which  the  other  riders  used  pads, 
palfreys,  and  salaam  alek  carpets  to  ease  the  fall 
of  their  reckless  and  break-neck  somersaults. 

Anyhow,  none  of  them  can  plunge  with  the 
dexterity  of  G.  B.  S.  There  is  a  wonderful 
elasticity  in  his  bouncing-board.    He  is  a  past- 


GEORGE  BERNARD  SHAW  i6i 

grand-master  in  the  art  of  diving,  although  he 
sometimes  goes  to  the  bottom,  and  seemingly  for 
good;  but  he  always  bobs  up  like  a  bladder,  and 
by  a  hocus-pocus  of  word  massage  and  mental 
calisthenics  he  resuscitates  himself  and  is  at  it 
again. 

No  matter  what  G.  B.  S.  does  he  is  always 
diverting,  but,  Hke  a  good  many  of  his  "com- 
rades," he  does  not  care  much  for  the  humble  life. 
He  beheves  in  success.  He  does  not  believe  in 
being  a  communistic  caterpillar;  it  is  better  to 
be  a  butterfly,  because  there  are  no  limits  to 
what  a  butterfly  may  do,  from  sitting  on  a  pro- 
letarian paling  to  flitting  over  fields  and  fashion- 
able pleasure  groimds,  ahghting  on  a  daisy  here, 
a  buttercup  there,  a  cabbage  leaf  here,  a  rose 
bush  somewhere  else,  for  no  full-grown  butter- 
fly will  consent  to  flutter  long  on  a  cabbage.  Fine 
flowers  and  fine  scents  are  wanted,  and  these  can 
only  be  had  in  the  gardens  of  success. 

If  it  is  harder  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  than  it  is  for  a  camel  to  enter  the 
eye  of  the  needle,  it  is  still  harder  for  rich  artists 
and  writers  to  become  serious  Socialists.  And 
some  of  Mr.  Shaw's  "comrades"  are  doing  their 
level  best  to  become  richer.  If  you  ask  them  for 
their  patent  of  equality  they  will  show  you  a  pair 


i62    THE   INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

of  patent  boots,  with  the  answer  that  equality 
may  reside  under  tanned  hide,  but  not  under 
curled  hair.  Brain  power  is  good,  but  success  is 
still  better.  It  makes  millions  of  unthinking 
people  mistake  sophistry  for  philosophy  and 
selfishness  for  the  teaching  of  democratic  saints. 

G.  B.  S.  likes  to  preach  against  sentiment  and 
preside  at  an ti- vivisection  meetings.  Is  it  his 
love  for  dogs  that  makes  him  a  cynic,  or  his 
cynicism  that  makes  him  pity  the  dogs?  Co- 
nundrum that  can  only  be  explained  by  the  great 
Saint  Bernard  himself.  It  is  probable  that  if 
someone  were  to  tell  us  that  a  cabbage  has  nerves, 
a  beet  a  heart,  and  a  turnip  a  gizzard,  G.  B.  S. 
would  eschew  them  and  begin  to  chew  something 
else.  We  are  to  show  sentiment,  but  never  in  the 
place  where  most  people  expect  it.  The  proper 
thing  seems  to  consist  in  doing  the  opposite 
thing.  If  the  partition  that  separates  wit  from 
madness  is  only  a  page  of  tissue  paper  the  parti- 
tion might  disappear  by  the  turning  of  a  leaf. 
Some  people  prefer  the  sentimental  to  the  cynical 
because,  like  somebody's  cocoa,  it  goes  furthest 
and  lasts  the  longest.  In  some  things  it  is 
better  to  side  with  the  majority. 

When  G.  B.  S.  is  not  plunging  he  swims  entre 
deux  eaux,  as  when  he  writes:  "If  the  Judgment 


GEORGE  BERNARD  SHAW  163 

Day  were  fixed  for  the  centenary  of  Poe's  birth 
there  are  among  the  dead  only  two  men  (Poe 
and  Whitman)  born  since  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  whose  plea  for  mercy  could  avert 
a  prompt  sentence  of  damnation  on  the  entire 
American  nation." 

Our  humorist  ignores  Lincoln.  The  great 
President  was  neither  an  artist  nor  a  poet,  and 
Mr.  Shaw  is  bound  to  appear  in  artistic  company, 
even  though  he  should  miss  the  company  of  the 
greatest  humanist  of  the  past  hundred  years. 
But  in  ignoring  Lincoln,  G.  B.  S.  negatives  his 
attitude  as  a  democratic  leader.  It  is  like  talk- 
ing about  the  history  of  Socialism  while  ignoring 
Fourier,  the  history  of  art  while  ignoring  Michel- 
angelo, the  history  of  music  while  ignoring 
Beethoven. 

G.  B.  S.  is  often  most  amusing  when  he  intends 
to  be  serious,  as  when  he  writes  about  Mark 
Twain  and  music.  "Twain,"  he  says,  "de- 
scribed Lohengrin  as  a  'shiveree,'  though  he  liked 
the  wedding  chorus,  which  shows  that  Mark, 
Like  Dickens,  was  not  properly  educated;  for 
Wagner  would  have  been  just  the  man  for  him 
if  he  had  been  trained  to  understand  and  use 
music  as  Mr.  Rockefeller  was  trained  to  under- 
stand and  use  money."    So!   then,  a  man  can  be 


i64    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

trained  to  appreciate  what  he  cannot  possibly 
understand!  But  G.  B.  S.  goes  one  better  when 
he  says:  "America  did  not  teach  Mark  Twain 
the  language  of  the  great  ideals,  just  as  England 
did  not  teach  it  to  Dickens  and  Thackeray." 
The  notion  of  a  writer  like  Twain  occupying  him- 
self with  any  ideal  is  very  funny.  The  truth  is  — 
Mark  Twain  is  the  greatest  cynic  America  ever 
produced.  A  good  many  people  have  failed  to 
grasp  the  fact,  because  his  cynicism  is  varnished 
by  a  species  of  bland  and  natural  humour,  which 
hides  the  reality. 

The  notion  of  Mark  Twain  dabbling  in 
"Ideals"  is  excruciating;  this  word  pronounced 
over  the  graves  of  Dickens  and  Thackeray  would 
make  them  turn  in  their  coffins.  The  American 
humorist  never  cared  to  be  an  expert  in  anything 
but  the  dangerous  science  of  piloting  boats  full 
of  passengers  on  the  Mississippi;  G.  B.  S.  would 
undertake  to  pilot  all  England  through  the 
shallows  of  art,  the  whirlpools  of  politics,  and  the 
social  rapids  of  no-man's  land,  a  place  that  looks 
to  some  people  ten  times  more  dangerous  than 
the  shifting  sand-bars  of  the  Mississippi.  Mark 
Twain  looked  after  the  safety  of  bodies;  G.  B.  S. 
would  look  after  mind  and  body.  He  writes  as 
if  mind  can  be  manufactured.    He  is  labouring 


GEORGE  BERNARD  SHAW   165 

under  the  delusion  that  art  is  a  trick  and  authority 
book  knowledge. 

Darwin  wrote:  "The  longer  I  live  the  more 
inclined  I  am  to  agree  with  Francis  Galton  that 
most  of  our  faculties  are  innate  and  that  what 
is  acquired  is  very  little."  These  words  should 
be  pondered  just  now,  when  discrimination  and 
judgment  seem  to  be  about  as  cheap  in  the  world 
of  distracted  wits  as  footballs  in  the  world  of 
distorted  sports. 

Mr.  Shaw  is  not  capering  in  a  fool's  paradise; 
he  has  the  range  of  a  new  garden  of  Eden,  where 
he  alone  is  the  only  regenerate  Adam,  and  where 
from  the  tall  tree-tops  of  fruitarian  delights  he 
lets  the  cocoa-nuts  of  communistic  conundrums 
crack  on  the  bewildered  heads  of  the  bourgeoisie 
to  give  them  the  only  taste  of  the  milk  of  human 
kindness  they  will  ever  get  at  his  hands;  his 
humour  is  greater  than  his  himianism. 

G.  B.  S.  is  oiu"  master  cynic.  He  is  without 
a  rival  even  in  the  salon  and  the  dining-room. 
His  dress  matches  nothing  from  curtains  to 
cantaloupes.  Artists  and  poets  do  pretty  much 
what  they  please.  Whistler  tied  a  blue  ribbon 
in  his  hair  and  wore  an  impudent  eye-glass. 
But  Socialism,  when  it  is  wrapped  in  wit  and 
tied    in    knotty    paradox,    alarms    the    average 


i66    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

business  man.  They  take  G.  B.  S.  too  seriously. 
Even  when  he  presents  his  paradox  in  the  most 
beautiful  bonbon  baskets,  with  gold  and  silver 
trimmings,  they  fear  some  intellectual  dynamite 
at  the  bottom.  He  mystifies  people  by  his  plays, 
walks  the  tight-rope  of  theatrical  surprises, 
stands  on  his  heels,  toes,  or  head  with  the  balance- 
pole  of  paradox  quivering  in  the  teeth  of  the 
public;  for  no  one  knows  which  end  of  the  pole 
will  go  highest  in  the  air  —  the  Tolstoy-Ibsen  or 
the  Nietzsche- Wagner  end. 

But,  in  spite  of  all,  some  people  will  continue 
to  ask,  in  what  does  G.  B.  S.  take  himself  seri- 
ously? This  question  might  be  answered  by 
asking  some  others:  How  does  he  compare  with 
some  of  the  masters  he  most  admires?  Has  he 
the  tartaric  sincerity  of  Tolstoy?  Has  he  the 
long-suffering  patience  of  Ibsen,  the  passion  of 
Wagner,  the  fine  frenzy  of  Nietzsche? 

Mr.  Shaw's  weakness  hes  in  the  intellectuality 
of  his  wit.  He  can  tear  down  but  he  cannot  con- 
struct ;  he  can  scatter  but  he  cannot  concentrate, 
and  the  instruction  he  affords  is  rarely  in  pro- 
portion to  the  amusement. 


THE   AGNOSTIC   AGONY 

THE  chief  difference  between  pessimism  and 
agnosticism  is  this:  a  pessimist  may  believe 
in  a  creed,  but  an  agnostic  has  to  live  without  the 
aid  of  any  religious  system  or  ''ism."  A  man  can 
be  a  pessimist  and  a  Christian;  he  cannot  be  an 
agnostic  and  take  comfort  in  any  ism  or  religion. 
The  moment  he  "believes"  he  ceases  to  be  an 
agnostic.  The  danger  lies  in  becoming  fanatical 
with  conviction  and  an  incurable  C3niic  with 
scepticism.  It  is  a  fact  that  an  avowed  sceptic 
is  never  welcome  in  any  company  of  people.  The 
reason  is  plain:  he  can  s)mipathise  with  no  one's 
sentiments. 

A  period  of  agnosticism  gives  some  minds  time 
to  think,  look  about,  and  choose;  but  if  the 
period  be  prolonged  a  sort  of  psychological 
atrophy  begins  to  develop  which  often  ends  in  a 
state  of  chronic  apathy,  out  of  which  no  psychic 
incident  or  influence  can  rouse  them. 

Some  men  boast  of  their  ability  to  doubt,  as 
others  boast  of  their  good  fortune  in  perceiving 
and  knowing.  I  have  noticed  that  some  agnostics 
are  prone  to  damn  the  opinions  and  beliefs  of 


i68    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

others;  but  the  people  who  believe  do  less  sneer- 
ing and  mocking.  The  fact  is,  as  soon  as  we  say 
we  don't  know  we  assume  a  negative  attitude. 

No  general  could  long  retain  command  of  any- 
body of  troops  if  he  gave  it  out  that  he  was  in 
ignorance  of  the  strength  and  the  movements  of 
the  enemy;  it  is  his  business  to  know  something 
about  the  other  side,  for  if  the  enemy  remain 
invisible  the  greater  will  be  the  clamour  to  find 
out  some  facts  about  liis  strength,  position, 
morale.  The  general,  I  say,  who  sits  down  and 
says  he  knows  nothing  would  not  long  be  left 
in  command  of  any  body  of  troops.  His  busi- 
ness is  to  send  out  scouts  and  spies  to  bring  back 
some  knowledge,  little  or  great,  of  the  other 
side. 

In  the  commercial  world  the  law  of  knowledge 
rules,  as  it  does  elsewhere.  The  merchant  who 
refuses  to  look  about  him  and  keep  up  with  the 
rules  of  progress  will  soon  see  his  business  pass 
beyond  his  control.  The  modern  thinker  who 
refuses  to  probe,  analyse,  investigate,  and  search 
out,  places  hunself  in  a  negative  position,  and  he 
is  promptly  ruled  out  of  the  race  of  thinkers. 

But  there  is  a  great  change  in  the  attitude  of 
intelligent  agnostics;  for  agnostics  are  of  two 
kinds  —  the  wilfully  apathetic  and  those  who 


THE  AGNOSTIC  AGONY     169 

wish  to  learn.  Certainly  no  man  can  call  himself 
a  thinker  who  refuses  to  do  battle  with  the 
mysterious  forces  which  encompass  us  round 
about,  as  palpable  as  the  air  we  breathe.  If 
there  were  no  mysteries  there  would  be  no  such 
thing  as  science,  and  if  book-learning  contained 
all  practical  wisdom  there  would  be  no  such 
thing  as  intuition.  Everything  is  Uke  everything 
else.  There  is  but  one  source;  but  an  infinite 
variety  of  appearances.  The  soul  of  the  universe 
is  one  —  its  manifestations  are  without  limit  in 
variation.  Phenomena  produce  mystery;  the 
whole  conscious  world  is  engaged  in  the  unravel- 
ling of  mystery. 

Consciously  or  unconsciously,  every  human 
being  is  engaged  in  the  pursuit  to  become  wiser. 
This  is  the  aim  and  meaning  of  conscious  exist- 
ence. Without  this  aim  there  would  be  no  mean- 
ing attached  to  life.  I  think  it  impossible,  at  the 
present  moment,  for  any  true  man  of  science  to 
deny  the  force  and  influence  of  anything  visible 
or  invisible.  The  scientist  who  to-day  declares 
that  a  thing  is  not  true  because  he  has  not  seen  it 
and  felt  it  is  put  down  as  shallow  and  superficial. 
The  paradox  is  amusing:  mystery  is  rendering 
mystery  less  mysterious!  We  have  but  to  go  to 
wireless  telegraphy  and  hypnotism  to  see  how 


lyo    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

the  unscientific  is  controlling  and  dominating 
science,  so-called. 

The  old-fashioned  scientist,  who  denied  every- 
thing new,  like  the  old-fashioned  musician,  is  a 
being  without  voice  or  power  in  the  world  to- 
day. For  although  he  may  talk  and  write  and 
preach,  no  one  pays  him  serious  attention.  It  is 
the  manifestation  of  the  invisible  which  rivets 
the  attention  of  the  world  now,  not  the  de- 
nials, the  subterfuges,  and  the  explanations  of  the 
positive.  The  word  "science"  has  now  little  of 
the  old  meaning,  and  a  new  word  may  have  to  be 
invented  to  cover  the  attitude,  the  aims,  and  the 
power  of  the  new  tendency.  The  man  who  hopes 
and  expects  is  far  more  interesting  than  the  man 
who  believes  nothing,  expects  nothing.  Illusion 
is  more  fascinating  than  disillusion.  No  man  can 
have  an  active  influence  on  any  body  of  people 
who  admits  his  inabihty  to  proceed  farther,  be 
it  through  light  or  through  darkness.  Illusions 
are  transitory  realities;  in  accepting  them  as 
such  we  are  often  led  to  the  permanent.  The 
agnostic,  in  getting  rid  of  all  illusion,  has  placed 
himself  in  a  state  of  helplessness.  He  is  Hke  a  man 
who  has  fasted  too  long  —  his  digestive  organs 
have  come,  at  last,  to  refuse  nourishment. 

I  believe  that  there  are  as  many  diseases  in 


THE  AGNOSTIC  AGONY     171 

the  mental  as  in  the  physical  man.  Every  ism, 
no  matter  mider  what  guise,  must  be  classed  as 
a  mental  disorder  the  moment  we  are  bound  up 
in  it.  The  instant  we  cease  to  progress  we  enter 
upon  a  decHne,  whether  it  be  towards  intellec- 
tual stagnation  or  towards  physical  decay.  But 
mystery,  illusion,  and  cm-iosity  keep  the  world 
from  imiversal  decadence.  The  forces  which 
impel  men  to  move  on  and  on,  through  maze  after 
maze  of  disappointment  and  disillusion,  are  hope 
and  egoism. 

One  of  the  principal  reasons  for  new  isms  is 
this:  without  new  ones  the  old  would  hold  us 
fast;  we  should  be  sitting  stUl  and  enjoying  the 
so-called  revelations  of  our  grandfathers.  Every 
new  ism,  therefore,  is  an  effort  towards  greater 
freedom.  It  makes  no  difference  what  the  behef 
is,  every  man  who  remains  quiescent  gives  him- 
self out  as  a  negative  quantity  in  the  world  of 
thought  and  action.  The  thirsty  who  sit  down 
in  the  oasis,  and  remain  there,  are  still  in  the 
desert;  the  world  of  the  contented  man  is  a  speck 
aroimd  which  the  simoon  sweeps  the  sands  of 
isolation  and  forgetfulness. 

Agnosticism  properly  belongs  to  a  period  of 
scientific  transition.  Critical  minds  wait;  but 
while  they  wait  doubt  knocks  at  the  door,  and 


172    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

the  door  is  often  open  to  scepticism.  And  so, 
without  knowing  it,  the  agnostic  glides  into  a 
state  of  positiveness  which  he  mistakes  for  truth. 
His  mind  is  positive,  while  his  senses  are  inactive. 
The  agnostic  attitude  seemed  natural  and  proper 
from  i860  to  1895.  The  tide  turned  with  the 
conjunction  of  several  influences  in  the  material 
and  psychological  world  a  few  years  ago.  Tyn- 
dall,  Haeckel,  and  Huxley  all  did  a  work  which 
had  to  be  done.  But  that  work  was  limited  to 
chemical  and  biological  demonstration.  It  was 
science,  but  science  of  the  old  school. 

Just  as  the  reign  of  a  man  of  genius  like  Goethe 
makes  thousands  of  intelligent  men  appear  like 
pigmies,  so  the  revelations  in  the  domain  of  light 
and  sound,  electric  transmission,  and  mental  sug- 
gestion, make  the  discoveries  of  Darwin  and  all 
his  contemporaries  appear  trivial  in  comparison. 
The  simple  fact  that  thought  can  be  transmitted, 
as  well  as  electric  currents,  without  wires,  is 
enough  to  stupefy  the  conservative  mind.  Even 
now,  efforts  are  being  made  to  develop  an  inde- 
pendent action  of  mind  and  will  outside  of  the 
body,  so  that  while  the  body  is  sleeping  or  re- 
posing in  one  place  the  mind,  or  double,  may 
visit  a  friend  or  a  locality,  at  a  great  distance, 
and  return  with  the  knowledge  which  it  went 


THE  AGNOSTIC  AGONY     173 

to  seek.  Indeed,  several  schools  of  hypnotism 
claim  this  faculty  for  some  of  their  pupils.  What 
this  means  may  be  conjectured  if  we  consider 
for  a  moment  the  possibility  of  a  mind  gifted  in 
this  way  setting  to  work  to  discover  the  secrets 
of  some  great  chemical  business  or  political 
intrigue. 

We  are  at  the  beginning  of  a  cycle  of  invisible 
forces;  the  coming  age  will  be  one  of  invisible 
action.  The  submarine  torpedo-boat  typifies  the 
development  of  the  century.  This  is  pre-emi- 
nently the  age  of  mind,  as  the  past  century  was 
the  age  of  matter.  So  far  as  we  know,  electricity 
is  the  soul  of  visible  form.  What  we  call  brain- 
waves have  an  analogy  with  electric  waves. 

In  former  times  intuitions  were  presented  in 
systems  of  philosophy.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  the  discoveries  and  inventions  of  the 
past  ten  years  have  made  child's-play  of  every 
known  system  of  philosophy.  Never  again  will 
any  man  be  able  to  build  up  a  philosophical  sys- 
tem which  will  stand  the  assaults  of  the  new 
science.  The  Uttle  that  we  now  know  is  more 
than  all  the  philosophers  of  the  past  knew,  from 
Aristotle  to  Leibnitz.  The  absurdity  of  the  old 
systems  may  be  summed  up  in  the  Positivism  of 
Auguste  Comte,  which  aimed  at  hard-and-fast 


174   THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

rules  of  life  and  conduct,  as  if  such  things  could 
ever  be  in  a  world  in  its  infancy. 

Every  fresh  discovery  delivers  a  blow  at  the 
old  and  fixed  formulas ;  every  disclosure  of  mental 
power  bids  defiance  to  some  stereotyped  belief. 
But  the  most  wonderful  fact  of  the  present  is  that 
we  are  being  ruled  by  the  seeming  impossible. 
Some  of  the  most  successful  inventors  of  the 
present  day  would  have  passed  for  madmen 
twenty  years  ago.  The  so-called  dreamers  are 
now  the  men  of  action;  they  have  proved  their 
power  and  competence,  and  thinking  people-turn 
to  them  for  more  miracles  of  discovery  and 
invention. 

While  people  are  tired  of  ethical  platitudes, 
they  are  equally  tired  of  scepticism.  Scientific 
progress  has  made  it  impossible  for  thinking 
minds  to  put  up  with  either  one  of  these  postu- 
lates. As  in  electrical  invention  the  word  "im- 
possible" is  no  longer  spoken,  so  in  the  realm  of 
the  mind  the  word  no  longer  discourages  the 
philosopher  and  psychologist.  Hesitancy  and 
fear  have  an  aflSnity.  No  one  who  is  in  doubt 
can  attain  that  plane  of  fearlessness  so  necessary 
to  progress  and  achievement. 

Every  thinker  who  has  accomplished  anything 
excellent  has  begun  by  believing  in  something. 


THE  AGNOSTIC  AGONY     175 

First,  he  has  confidence  in  himself;  second,  he 
has  confidence  in  others;  third,  he  feels  that  in 
the  eternal  mysteries  there  resides  a  law  and  a 
force  which  may  be  revealed  by  flashes  of  intui- 
tion; fourth,  he  knows  that  the  world  is  not 
standing  still.  The  greatest  pessimists  have  felt 
something  of  all  this,  but  the  most  typical  agnos- 
tics have  not.  For  no  one  can  wait  and  work  at 
the  same  time.  They  have  made  the  grave  mis- 
take of  not  seeking  to  disentangle  themselves 
from  the  web  of  doubt  and  uncertainty;  they  sit 
still  and  rub  their  eyes  at  every  fresh  discovery, 
and  cry  out :  "  It  may  be  true,  but  I  don't  know." 
Would  it  be  possible  for  a  merchant  or  shop- 
keeper to  hold  his  business  successfully  while 
saying  he  knows  nothing  about  the  business 
methods  of  a  formidable  rival  ?  Look  where  we 
may,  it  is  the  men  who  hope  and  work  who  are 
triumphing.  And  the  people  who  are  wide  awake 
to  new  inventions  and  discoveries  are  the  ones 
who  do  the  best  business  and  make  the  greatest 
progress.  In  the  great  struggle  of  the  future 
the  nation  most  keenly  alive  to  intellectual  and 
invisible  force  will  triumph.  The  nations  most 
boimd  up  in  the  material  will  succumb.  Intel- 
lect will  dominate  material  force,  no  matter  how 
formidable  the  material  force  may  be. 


176    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

The  future  belongs  to  scientific  power,  applied 
by  genius  of  a  psychic  and  intuitive  order.  The 
dreamers  of  the  future  will  be  the  ones  who  de- 
pend on  the  old-fashioned  methods  of  scientific 
research.  They  will  dream  on  and  on  in  a  sort 
of  fool's  paradise,  placing  crowns  and  kingdoms 
at  the  mercy  of  a  cannon  shot,  and  they  will  lose. 
The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  a  science  of  the 
mind  will  treat  material  science  as  if  it  were  a 
plaything.  The  rulers  of  the  future  need  not 
make  themselves  visible  in  public;  their  work 
will  be  done  in  silence.  Material  riches  will  play 
but  a  secondary  part,  and  Mammon  will  be 
forced  under  by  purely  intellectual  pressure.  No 
people  are  more  conscious  of  limitation  than 
materialists.  But  the  day  is  coming  when  the 
psychic  power  of  the  intellect  will  kill  material- 
ism. There  will  be  no  battle,  no  strife,  no  intrigue ; 
the  blows  will  be  delivered  silently,  like  the 
stroke  of  an  electric  bolt. 

I  am  not  a  behever  in  bloody  revolutions.  I 
see  signs  that  millionaires  are  beginning  to  con- 
sider the  question  of  spiritual  versus  material 
power.  Materialism  and  agnosticism  have  sup- 
phed  nothing  in  the  place  of  the  old  superstitions. 
Did  not  Darwinism  prove  that  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  was  the  natural  order  of  life?    And  what 


THE  AGNOSTIC  AGONY     177 

is  a  rich  man  but  the  survival  of  the  fittest?  The 
fact  was  so  patent  that  every  miner  and  railway 
magnate  could  appropriate  it. 

At  its  worst,  the  doctrine  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  is  a  gilded  lie;  at  its  best,  a  ghost  at  a 
banquet.  But  the  old  scientists  and  the  new 
millionaires  are  beginning  to  perceive  that  mind 
is  superior  to  muscle,  that  it  will  eventually  con- 
trol and  dominate  the  impulses  and  ambitions  of 
the  brute  instincts  in  man.  Up  till  quite  recently 
rich  men  had  a  sort  of  contempt  for  genius,  look- 
ing on  it  as  something  visionary.  For  what  had 
genius  to  do  with  the  buying  and  selling  of  stocks, 
the  building  of  railroads,  or  the  smelting  of  ore? 
But  with  the  discoveries  of  Edison  it  was  seen 
that  genius  could,  directly  or  indirectly,  influence 
the  money  market.  It  was  seen  that  this  wizard 
was  revolutionising  science.  The  rich  began  to 
consider  the  meaning  of  intuition  and  genius; 
they  had  here  a  force  to  reckon  with,  and,  above 
all,  a  force  to  respect.  Later  came  wireless 
telegraphy,  hypnotic  control,  and  mental-inter- 
communication, to  accomphsh  for  the  \'ulgar 
world,  as  well  as  the  learned  world,  what  the 
genius  of  Edison  had  left  undone,  and  to  open  the 
eyes  of  all  but  the  blind  to  the  possibilities  of  the 
future. 


178    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

It  is  a  fact  that  doubt,  hesitancy,  scepticism 
are  inherently  destructive,  and  that  what  affects 
the  mind  also  affects  the  body.  But  the  mental 
agony  endured  by  some  agnostics  can  hardly  be 
defined  in  words,  as  I  well  know  from  personal 
experience.  A  chronic  state  of  agnosticism  not 
only  renders  a  man  discontented  with  himself, 
but  it  renders  him  irritable  and  contradictory 
whenever  the  behef  of  others  comes  up  for  dis- 
cussion. In  spite  of  the  attitude  of  some  writers 
of  the  present,  the  age  of  stoicism  is  past.  A  man 
who  is  indifferent  can  neither  fill  the  position  of 
thinker  nor  scientist.  And  indifference  is  only 
make-believe  when  we  see  it  turn  into  fury  — 
which  is  half  envy  and  half  spite  —  against  some 
author  who  dares  to  express  something  a  Kttle 
more  hopeful  and  a  good  deal  more  helpful  than 
the  humdrum  of  the  ordinary  writer. 

I  remember  the  outcry  against  the  attitude  of 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  who  at  one  time  was  in  a 
fair  way  to  make  agnostics  of  the  majority  of 
thinking  Americans.  While  the  most  eloquent 
preachers  in  the  different  churches  were  listened 
to  by  wealthy  congregations  they  made  no  prog- 
ress. The  churches  had  plenty  of  substance,  but 
no  spirit.  He  attacked  them  on  their  weakest 
side,  and  had  it  all  his  own  way  for  twenty  years. 


THE   AGNOSTIC   AGONY     179 

But  there  came  a  day  when  Colonel  Ingersoll 
found  himself  too  old,  and  fixed  in  his  ideas,  to 
take  any  interest  in  the  new  order  of  things. 
Young  men  were  bringing  with  them  a  new  science 
and  a  new  faith.  The  future  was  for  the  young 
inventors  and  thinkers,  and  Colonel  Ingersoll 
belonged  to  the  past.  But  were  he  beginning  his 
career  now  he  would  be  compelled  to  face  a  whole 
world  of  electric,  magnetic,  and  psychic  prob- 
lems, to  deny  any  one  of  which  would  make  him 
appear  ridiculous. 

Robert  Ingersoll  filled  a  gap  in  the  world  of 
thought  which  Nature  intended  him  to  fill. 
Everything  has  its  own  time.  Phenomena  come 
and  go  in  cychc  order.  There  is  nothing  before 
or  after  the  proper  time.  We  know  what  a 
scientific  mind  means  to-day,  and  we  know  what 
a  scientific  mind  meant  thirty  years  ago;  and 
the  thinkers  of  to-day  are  as  far  removed  from 
the  thinkers  of  1870  as  electricity  is  from  steam. 
We  know  steam  to  be  a  crude  and  clumsy  thing 
compared  with  electricity,  and  to-morrow  we 
shall  awake  to  the  fact  that  mind  is  just  as 
superior  to  the  crude  electric  current. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  DRESS 

MEN  wear  fine  clothes  for  two  principal  rea- 
sons, to  wit:  to  satisfy  their  vanity  and  to 
impress  other  people.  Sometimes  men  dress  well 
from  an  innate  sense  of  refinement,  and  sometimes 
from  sheer  business  motives,  hating  the  very 
clothes  which  worldly  policy  forces  them  to  put 
on.  Dress,  therefore,  is  not  the  silly  thing  that 
some  would-be  moralists  think  it,  but  a  power,  an 
influence,  a  symbol  in  the  world  of  fact  and  real- 
ity, a  power  which  even  the  moralists  are  often 
the  first  to  acknowledge. 

Why  did  the  late  Mr.  Gladstone  wear  a  very 
high  and  prominent  collar?  What  made  Disraeli 
wear  a  dandy  waistcoat?  Why  did  Tennyson 
walk  about  London  with  a  flowing  purple  mantle? 
Why  did  George  Borrow  carry  a  huge  green  um- 
brella? Why  did  Liszt  walk  about  Paris  with  a 
huge  red  umbrella?  Why  does  a  man  wear  a 
single  eye-glass?  And  last,  but  not  least,  why  do 
judges  and  lawyers  wear  wigs?  Lawyers  and 
judges  wear  wigs  and  gowns  to  impress  both 
saints  and  sinners  with  the  dignity  of  the  law. 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  DRESS     i8i 

Precisely.  And  men  of  talent  and  genius  wear 
conspicuous  things  for  exactly  the  same  reason. 
Tennyson  wore  his  purple  cloak  because  it  not 
only  suited  him,  but  it  distinguished  him  from  the 
fashionable  nobodies  of  Bond  Street,  and  George 
Borrow  carried  his  green  umbrella  in  Richmond 
Park  as  a  sort  of  canopy  to  protect  the  head  of  a 
man  the  like  of  whom  never  walked  in  Richmond 
Park  before.  But  there  are  business  and  material 
reasons  for  men  wearing  striking  apparel.  Some 
men  wear  silk  hats  because  they  think  a  high  hat 
gives  them  a  dignity  which  they  themselves  do 
not  possess.  Some  wear  eye-glasses  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  millions  who  could  not  be  hired  to 
wear  them. 

The  philosophy  of  dress!  What  a  world  there 
is  in  that  phrase.  The  people  who  ignore  this 
philosophy  are  perhaps  the  people  who  have 
failed  in  life.  We  are  living  in  a  world  where  men 
judge  everything  by  appearances.  It  makes  no 
difference  what  your  banking  account  may  be,  if, 
from  an  attack  of  gout,  you  are  compelled  to  go 
about  in  old  patched-up  shoes,  for  you  will  be 
taken  for  a  ruined  gentleman  or  some  bohemian 
actor  waiting  for  an  engagement. 

One  philosopher  has  told  us  that  the  world  is 
a  lie,  and  another  that  all  we  see  and  touch  is 


i82    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

illusion.  Certainly  the  greatest  error  we  can  fall 
into  is  the  error  of  not  taking  the  world  as  it  is. 
I  had  travelled  about  for  years,  ignoring  the 
value  of  dress  and  growing  more  and  more  indif- 
ferent to  all  that  pertains  to  fashion,  considering 
life  too  serious  to  lose  time  over  what  I  regarded 
as  trivial  and  superfluous.  A  friend  said  to  me: 
"As  you  won't  dress  in  the  fashion,  you  ought 
to  wear,  as  a  matter  of  material  benefit,  one  of 
the  presents  your  friends  have  given  you.  There 
is  the  king's  ring.  Wear  that  and  you  will  soon 
see  its  good  effects."  Jewellery  I  always  disliked, 
and  the  king's  ring,  in  particular,  was  so  big,  so 
brilliant,  and  so  conspicuous  that  the  few  times 
I  wore  it  I  always  put  it  off  with  a  sense  of  relief, 
and  it  lay  for  months,  and  even  years,  hidden 
away  with  other  souvenirs  from  friends  titled 
and  untitled.  "What,"  I  asked,  "has  jewellery 
to  do  in  my  life?  and  how  were  such  things  as 
rings  and  scarf-pins  to  influence  me  in  the  world 
of  thought,  in  the  region  of  pure  inteUect?" 

But  the  same  friend  answered:  "You  are  not 
reasoning  like  a  philosopher.  We  are  Hving  in 
a  world  of  matter  and  of  fact,  and  not  in  the 
clouds;  consider  things  and  people  as  they  are." 
And  then  he  laid  stress  on  these  words:  "You 
have  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  looking  upon 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  DRESS     183 

that  ring  and  other  similar  objects  as  symbols 
of  power." 

Then  I  began  to  reason  about  it.  Was  the 
ring,  indeed,  a  s^onbol  of  power? 

"Don't  you  see,"  said  the  friend,  "that  such 
presents  were  not  given  you  for  doing  nothing? 
Do  you  think  for  a  moment  that  such  an  object 
as  the  king's  ring  could  have  been  obtained  if  you 
were  a  clerk  in  a  city  bank?" 

"I  admit,"  I  said,  "that  these  souvenirs  all 
represent  so  much  money,  and  in  looking  at  them 
the  ordinary  mind  immediately  thinks  of  their 
material  value." 

"But  this  is  not  all,"  said  the  friend;  "there 
is  another  side  of  the  question,  and  one  of  much 
more  importance;  artists  know  that  these  things 
represent  something  which  money  cannot  pur- 
chase; in  your  case  they  symbolise  a  success 
which  came  to  you  unsought.  But  leaving  aside 
these  reasons,  take  my  advice  and  wear  the 
king's  ring  to  offset  the  bad  effect  of  your  un- 
fashionable clothes." 

"Here  is  an  idea,"  I  said.  "I  will  wear  the 
king's  ring  and  take  particular  note  of  what 
follows." 

The  result  was  both  amusing  and  instructive. 
Cabmen  demanded  a  shilling  a  mile  more,  news- 


i84   THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

boys  expected  a  penny  for  a  ha'penny  paper. 
The  ring  had  an  extraordinary  effect  on  waiters. 
Under  the  electric  light  the  big  ruby  shot  forth 
crimson  flashes  which  were  reflected  in  the  facets 
of  the  brilliants  surrounding  it,  and  every  mo- 
tion of  the  hand  was  the  cause  of  new  combina- 
tions of  colour.  The  waiters  expected  their  tips 
to  be  just  double.  But  all  these  details  were  in- 
significant compared  to  the  effect  of  the  ring  on 
another  class  of  minds,  the  minds  of  that  large 
class  who  are  incapable  of  any  deep  or  critical 
thought.  In  their  eyes  the  ring  had  changed  me. 
I  was  no  longer  the  humble  person  of  old  whom 
they  knew  but  did  not  honour.  They  now  saw 
in  me  a  personage  and  a  power.  What  I  was  and 
what  I  could  do  made  very  httle  difference  with 
them.  The  one  thing  which  stood  out  beyond 
all  others  was  the  possession  of  this  ring;  it  made 
them  sentimental,  it  caused  them  to  look  upon 
my  presence  in  their  house  as  an  honour.  Here 
was  a  force  at  once  visible  and  tangible.  In  its 
light  the  snobbish  mind  saw  nothing  but  royalty. 
Thackeray  claimed  all  Englishmen  as  snobs; 
but  supposing  eighty  per  cent  of  the  people  to  be 
snobs,  that  would  leave  a  powerful  majority  to 
live,  move,  and  act  in  a  world  of  illusion  and 
show.    Read  and  tremble,  says  the  edict  of  the 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  DRESS     185 

Chinese  dictator.  Look  and  kow-tow,  says  the 
modern  bauble  worshipper.  After  becoming 
acquainted  with  these  facts  no  one  can  wonder 
at  the  talented  young  artists  who  seek,  by  hook 
or  by  crook,  to  paint  the  portrait  of  some  titled 
personage.  But  the  game  of  snobbery  works 
both  ways;  it  is  played  by  lords  and  by  laymen, 
by  grand  ladies  and  by  ladies'  maids,  by  painters 
and  the  people  who  sit  to  be  painted,  by  states- 
men and  the  tradespeople  who  supply  them  with 
wine  and  meat.  Why  does  a  nobleman  go  about 
with  his  coat  of  arms  painted  on  his  carriage  door? 
Does  the  earl  wish  to  impress  the  marquis?  Does 
the  marquis  expect  to  influence  the  duke?  Not 
at  all.  Among  themselves  the  game  is  a  bore.  A 
nobleman  goes  about  with  the  symbols  of  nobil- 
ity emblazoned  on  his  carriage  to  impress  the 
world  of  snobbery.  The  snobs  are  deeply  im- 
pressed, and  it  does  not  hurt  the  lord. 


BENJAMIN  DISRAELI 

THE  nineteenth  century  may  yet  be  called  the 
most  "dcEmonic"  of  all  the  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era.  At  its  beginning  three  men  were 
living  who,  in  the  words  of  Goethe,  "were  con- 
trolled by  the  daemonic  afflatus  of  their  genius," 
namely,  B3rron,  Bonaparte,  and  Disraeli.  Of 
these  three  Bonaparte  and  Disraeli  attained  the 
miraculous.  A  mistake  has  been  made  in  allud- 
ing to  the  first  half  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign  as 
a  period  of  sentimentality.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
it  was  sentimental  only  in  art;  but  the  long 
necks  in  the  pictures  of  Rossetti  were  more  than 
matched  by  the  long  heads  in  Parliament;  the 
languorous  eyes  in  Burne- Jones  were  more  than 
rivalled  by  the  Mephistophelean  glances  of  wily 
Whigs  and  the  Machiavellian  winks  of  a  Tory 
Demiurgus  whose  advent  all  the  wiseacres  failed 
to  predict  and  all  the  fools  failed  to  prevent.  No; 
the  novels,  the  manners,  the  fertile  Disraehan 
wit  more  than  counterbalanced  the  lotus-languors 
of  the  come-into-the-garden  Maudies  of  the  early 
Victorian  period. 

Byron  was  a  sentimental  Don  Juan  who  turned 


BENJAMIN  DISRAELI       187 

the  heads  of  women  and  the  stomachs  of  men. 
Disraeli  turned  all  heads,  touched  all  fancies, 
wrought  upon  all  hearts,  opened  all  pocket-books, 
filled  all  imaginations,  and  brought  to  the  festive 
board  of  British  poHtics  the  spice  of  a  new  hfe,  a 
ragout  unnamed  in  the  pohtical  cookery-books, 
unknown  to  the  most  fastidious  faddists  of  the 
Parliamentary  palate,  a  dish  of  birds  of  a  feather 
which  had  refused  to  flock  together,  but  which, 
when  caught,  killed,  and  baked  in  a  pie,  rose  when 
the  pie  was  opened  and  sang  in  chorus  "Rule 
Britannia"  to  the  baton  of  Benjamin  Disraeli, 
Prime  Minister  of  England  by  the  Grace  of  God, 
most  of  the  landlords,  and  all  the  publicans. 
Never  before  was  such  a  thing  seen  with  the 
naked  eye,  never  was  such  a  thing  heard  with  the 
naked  ear.  People  who  were  not  stricken  with 
wonder  would  be  likely  to  remain  unmoved  at 
the  sound  of  the  last  trump. 

Bonaparte  struck  terror  into  all  Europe,  but 
he  did  so  with  sabre  and  bullet.  People  could 
see  him  at  the  work  even  if  they  failed  to  under- 
stand how  his  work  was  done.  He  seemed  to  his 
soldiers  to  be  part  of  themselves.  They  regarded 
him  as  a  descended  God  made  one  with  the  com- 
mon esprit  de  corps,  democratic  as  well  as  dae- 
monic;   they  followed  blindly  where  they  could 


i88    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

not  see,  and  obeyed  willingly  what  they  could  not 
understand. 

With  all  his  colossal  originality  Napoleon  the 
Great  was  less  daemonic,  less  oriental,  than  Dis- 
raeli. Bonaparte  often  blundered,  and  he  came  to 
his  defeat  through  a  blunder  that  showed  more 
madness  than  sanity.  He  possessed  will,  tact, 
daring,  originality,  but  he  lacked  patience  and 
composure.  The  serene  Hebraic  spirit  was  not 
his.  Serenity  means  supremacy.  Once  lose  the 
sense  of  equanimity  and  the  balance  of  power  is 
gone.  An  ambitious,  irritable  man  is  doomed. 
That  was  the  doom  of  Napoleon.  The  supreme 
minds  are  those  that  know  themselves.  A  man 
can  afford  to  wait  when  he  understands  his  own 
powers,  the  meaning  of  parties,  the  pretensions 
of  his  enemies,  and  the  chimeras  of  the  world. 
Wliile  men  with  limitations  are  in  a  hurry,  the 
others,  possessing  a  sense  of  the  eternal,  are 
never  tempted  to  force  events,  never  tempted  to 
hurry  through  the  phenomena  of  life. 

Understand  a  man's  mind  and  you  can  defeat 
him  in  his  aims,  his  plans,  his  ambitions.  No 
one  understood  Disraeli.  And  yet  the  man  in 
the  street  will  tell  you  he  understands  the  wit 
in  the  play,  the  clown  in  the  circus,  the  dandy 
in  the  red  waistcoat.    Not  these  do  people  under- 


BENJAMIN  DISRAELI         189 

stand.  What  people  understand  is  the  speaker 
without  wit,  the  writer  without  humour,  the 
poHtician  without  imagination,  the  preacher 
without  passion. 

Beau  Brummell  died  in  1840,  and  in  that  year 
another  dandy  found  himself  in  a  conspicuous 
place  on  the  stage  of  London  life.  But  what  a 
difference  between  the  two  dandies,  Brummell 
and  Disraeli!  The  first  was  a  fool,  the  second  a 
genius  who  played  at  burlesque  because  he  knew 
the  fools  would  like  it.  Captivate  them  and  you 
have  won  half  the  battle.  The  fooHsh  are  won 
through  the  sight,  the  weak  through  hunger, 
the  vain  by  flattery,  the  wicked  by  ambition, 
the  cunning  by  promises,  and  the  wise  by  knowl- 
edge and  judgment.  The  new  dandy  made  up 
his  mind  to  give  all  a  taste  in  turn.  In  the  begin- 
ning he  made  himself  as  picturesque  as  it  was  pos- 
sible to  be  without  becoming  a  peacock  or  a  bird 
of  paradise,  and  he  managed  to  surpass  them  in 
his  strut  and  rival  them  in  colour.  He  was  a 
human  chanticleer.  He  began  to  crow  as  a 
chicken  and  fought  in  the  Parliamentary  cock- 
pit when  his  spurs  were  mere  corns  and  his  wings 
pin  feathers.  Well  might  the  Puritans  cry, 
"Coxcomb!"  He  stormed  the  barnyard  first, 
the  hen-house  second,  the  House  of  Commons 


I90    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

third,  then  the  lordly  House  of  the  Turkey 
Cocks,  whose  cry  is,  "Gobble,  gobble,  and  let 
the  sparrows  take  the  crumbs!  "  The  idle  were 
intensely  amused,  society  was  kept  bobbing  up 
and  down  like  a  devil  in  a  bottle,  but  the  men 
in  search  of  power  were  seized  with  mingled  feel- 
ings of  wonder,  fear,  admiration,  and  panic. 

Whence  came  this  Titan  who  began  his  career 
as  a  social  mountebank?  Who  was  this  Jew 
without  prestige,  this  politician  without  a  pedi- 
gree, this  upstart  without  a  fortmie?  Well  might 
his  enemies  scratch  their  heads  and  ask  if  their 
pyramid  of  statescraft  did  not  hide  more  mum- 
mies than  men,  more  dummies  than  Hve  issues. 

We  are  a  peculiar  people. 

When  we  call  a  statesman  a  charlatan  we  mean 
that  he  has  the  true  political  afflatus,  when  we 
call  a  poet  a  charlatan  we  mean  that  he  has  the 
true  poetic  afflatus,  and  when  we  call  an  artist  a 
charlatan  we  mean,  of  course,  that  he  possesses 
the  Whistlerian  root  that  will  grow  not  brussels 
sprouts,  but  roses  with  thorns  enough  to  make 
prickly  foolscaps  for  every  R.  A.  in  the  three 
kingdoms. 

As  Disraeli  rose  step  by  step  he  was  greeted 
with  stronger  and  stronger  epithets.  The  admira- 
tion of  his  enemies  knew  no  bounds.    They  cried 


BENJAMIN  DISRAELI       191 

in  a  chorus,  "Charlatan,  mountebank,  adven- 
turer, impostor!  "  In  the  meantime  he  kept  his 
wits,  he  stored  his  irony,  he  reserved  his  sarcasm 
and  wore  on  his  face  the  imper\dous  mask  of  per- 
petual serenity.  Nature's  hall-mark  of  daemonic 
genius.  Nor  did  he  walk  alone  in  his  dashing 
glory.  He  was  surrounded  by  social  meteors, 
sparks  from  the  wheel  of  fashion  and  passing 
fame,  dynamical  dandies,  Count  D'Orsay,  Bul- 
wer  Lytton,  Brummell,  and  others,  who  made 
DisraeH's  sim  appear  all  the  brighter  in  com- 
parison with  the  dandies  who  wanted  but  a 
whiff  of  creative  afSatus  to  make  their  intellects 
shine  like  their  clothes. 

DisraeH  was  a  bard  who  preferred  oriental 
prose  to  verse,  and  the  poetic  license  of  Parlia- 
ment to  the  practice  of  Byronic  rhyme. 

He  was  the  first  modem  to  turn  the  tables  on 
the  prophets  by  forestalling  their  predictions,  the 
greatest  practical  pessimist  since  Moses,  the 
clearest  seer  since  Daniel.  It  required  a  serene 
eye,  an  unruffled  brow,  and  a  menacing  top-knot 
to  enter  the  Uon's  den  at  Westminster  with 
nothing  but  words  to  allure  and  nothing  but 
manners  to  fascinate.  He  was  not  long  there 
when  he  began  to  twist  their  tails,  pull  their 
teeth,  singe  their  manes,  and  chp  their  claws 


192    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

without  using  so  much  as  a  sniff  of  chloroform. 
He  soon  became  the  whip  of  the  whole  menagerie, 
as  well  as  tamer  of  lions,  wild  cats,  hyenas,  and 
the  leopards  who  longed  to  change  their  spots  as 
well  as  their  seats. 

Like  all  men  of  daemonic  genius,  he  had  his 
moods,  his  days,  his  seasons,  when  he  thought, 
spoke,  and  did  what  he  pleased.  At  one  moment 
he  lured  the  proletariat  from  the  flesh  pots  of 
Egypt  by  a  mess  of  pottage,  at  another  he  kept 
his  party  from  attempting  a  second  crossing  of 
the  Red  Sea  before  he  was  ready  to  divide  the 
waters,  at  another  he  swapped  hobby-horses  in 
the  middle  of  a  doubtful  stream,  and  he  actually 
hobbled  the  Liberals  to  the  skirts  of  unhappy 
chance  at  a  time  when  Gladstone  and  his  bishops 
were  getting  ready  to  walk  the  aisles  of  untram- 
melled freedom  in  the  most  flowing  robes  ever 
invented  to  show  off  the  new  and  flouncing 
crinoline. 


SAVONAROLA 

CHRISTIAN  Italy  twice  endured  a  wave  of 
what  seemed  like  universal  madness.  The 
first  arrived  with  the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  the  second  arrived  about  the  time  of 
Savonarola's  birth  in  1452.  The  first  was  caused 
by  the  slow  dissolution  of  paganism,  the  second 
by  a  revival  of  paganism. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  prelates  and  philoso- 
phers were  far  more  concerned  with  the  writings 
of  Aristotle  and  Plato  than  they  were  with  the 
precepts  of  the  saints.  With  the  revival  of  clas- 
sical learning  in  Italy  came  rapacious  greed, 
cruelty,  and  fierce  personal  struggles  for  temporal 
power.  Sci'ence  and  philosophy  had  no  place  for 
rehgion  in  the  Christian  sense.  The  old  vices 
returned.  Rome  and  Florence  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  fifteenth  century  played  the  old  roles  of 
Jerusalem,  Athens,  and  the  Latin  Emperors. 

Classicism  has  always  meant,  not  a  revival  of 
power,  but  a  preparation  towards  decline. 

Up  to  the  present  time  a  national  renaissance 
has  meant  nothing  more  than  what  the  hectic 
flush  meant  on  the  cheeks  of  a  consumptive.    As 


194    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

for  the  "humanities,"  Savonarola  has  told  us 
what  that  word  meant  in  his  day:  "Throughout 
all  Christendom,  in  the  mansions  of  the  great 
prelates  and  lords,  there  is  no  concern,  save  for 
poetry  and  the  critical  art;  go  thither  and  thou 
shalt  find  them  all  with  books  of  the  humanities 
in  their  hands,  telling  one  another  that  they  can 
guide  men's  souls  by  means  of  Virgil,  Horace, 
and  Cicero,  and  there  is  no  prelate  nor  lord  that 
hath  not  intimate  dealings  with  some  astrologer 
who  fixeth  the  hour  and  moment  in  which  he  is 
to  ride  out  or  undertake  some  piece  of  business." 
They  were  unable  to  distinguish  inter  honum  et 
malum,  inter  verum  et  falsum. 

As  for  Savonarola,  the  greatest  Italian  of  his 
time,  and  one  of  the  greatest  minds  Christianity 
ever  produced,  the  man  who  gave  Florence  the 
best  form  of  republican  government  it  had  ever 
enjoyed,  he  boasted  of  hearing  voices  in  the  air, 
of  seeing  the  sword  of  the  Almighty,  and  of  being 
the  ambassador  of  Florence  to  the  Virgin !  In  that 
day  science  was  a  thing  which  developed  mad- 
ness on  one  hand  and  clairvoyance  on  the  other. 

The  lunatic  asylums  of  our  day  would  be 
filled  with  philosophers  and  scientists  were  they 
to  exhibit  anything  like  the  intellectual  fever  of 
the  Renaissance. 


SAVONAROLA  195 

Marsilio  Ficino  lectured  from  the  professional 
chair  on  the  occult  virtues  contained  in  amulets 
composed  of  the  teeth  and  claws  of  animals.  He 
changed  the  jewels  in  his  rings  to  suit  the  impres- 
sions, whims,  and  moods  of  the  day  or  the  hour. 
Cristoforo  Landino  went  so  far  as  to  "draw  the 
horoscope  of  the  Christian  religion";  Francesco 
Guicciardini  encountered  aerial  spirits.  Nothing 
that  Savonarola  ever  saw,  or  dreamed  that  he 
saw,  equalled  the  visions,  the  dreams,  the  obses- 
sions of  Cardano,  Porta,  and  Pomponaccio,  those 
daring  minds  who,  as  Villari  says,  hewed  out  a 
path  for  Galileo  "while  apparently  living  in  a 
state  of  delirium."  The  sight  of  a  wasp  flying 
into  his  room  inspired  Cardano  to  write  whole 
pages  of  predictions,  and  we  wonder  that  out  of 
the  chaos  and  psychological  barbarism  of  the 
age  a  man  like  Galileo  could  have  emerged  sane 
and  sound  at  last. 

When  Savonarola  began  to  preach  all  Italy 
was  in  a  state  of  ferment.  Borgia  was  a  papal 
Nero  in  Rome,  Lorenzo  de  Medici  a  new  Augustus 
in  Florence,  Borso  a  new  Maecenas  in  Ferrara, 
but  Savonarola  in  the  pulpit  of  the  Duomo  shone 
like  a  koh-i-noor  in  a  tiara  of  mock  jewels  and 
tawdry  tinsel. 

The  wonder  is  not  that  they  destroyed  him  at 


196    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

the  time  they  did,  but  that  they  ever  permitted 
him  the  use  of  a  pubHc  pulpit  the  second  time. 
In  the  midst  of  a  thousand  confusions,  hallucina- 
tions, dreams,  theories,  revivals,  passions,  occult 
insanity,  scientific  raving,  and  philosophical  de- 
lirium, when  everything  the  world  ever  knew 
was  revived  except  the  religion  of  St.  Augustine, 
his  denunciations  fell  like  hot  hail  on  the  heads 
of  prelates  and  courtiers,  princes  and  peasants. 

His  complexion  was  dark,  his  grey  eyes  shone 
with  a  piercing  brightness,  his  long,  aquiline 
nose  resembled  a  hook,  which  gave  to  his  features 
something  massive  and  menacing;  he  preached 
with  the  trenchant  phraseology  of  a  prophet. 

What  a  difference  there  is  between  the  elo- 
quent speaker  and  the  inspired  preacher!  The 
prophetic  preacher  inspires  not  only  admiration 
and  respect,  but  apprehension  and  awe,  with 
something  merging  into  the  indefinable  and  the 
mystical;  at  certain  moments  he  diffuses  terror 
—  terrificam  praedicaUonem  egi,  as  Savonarola 
declared  when  writing  of  himself.  His  age  was  a 
time  in  which  political,  religious,  and  social  con- 
ditions became  so  confused  that  it  required  an 
intellectual  giant  to  rise  head  and  shoulders  above 
all  the  greatest  men  in  Italy  and  produce  an  im- 
pression at  once  profound  and  universal. 


SAVONAROLA  197 

Men  like  Savonarola  often  put  an  end  to 
tragedy  by  the  consummation  of  the  tragic. 
September  21st,  1494,  was  a  memorable  one  in 
the  history  of  Florence.  It  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  end  for  this  wonderful  man.  Early  on 
that  day  people  began  to  arrive  at  the  Duomo. 
They  came  from  every  direction,  rich  and  poor, 
philosophers  and  courtiers,  and  at  last  the  great 
edifice  was  filled  with  a  multitude  palpitating 
with  suppressed  emotion  hardly  able  to  endure 
the  suspense  created  by  so  much  hope,  apprehen- 
sion, doubt,  and  presentunents  of  coming  calam- 
ity. When  Savonarola  mounted  the  pulpit  he 
stood  for  a  moment  surv^eying  the  vast  congre- 
gation like  some  revenant  from  the  tombs;  then, 
catching  something  of  the  nerv^ous  tension  that 
prevailed  ever)rwhere  around  him,  he  shouted 
in  a  voice  that  rang  through  the  vast  edifice: 
"Ecce  ego  adducam  aquas  super  terram!  "  The 
words  came  like  a  clap  of  thunder,  and  Pico  Delia 
Mirandola  tells  us  he  felt  "a  cold  shiver"  run 
through  hun.  People  left  the  Duomo  "be- 
wildered, speechless,  and,  as  it  were,  half  dead," 
and  for  days  the  terrible  sermon  was  the  talk  of 
Florence. 

May  19th  to  the  23rd  witnessed  the  last  act 
in  the  great  tragedy.    Frenzy  was  now  added  to 


198    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

the  prevailing  insanity.  The  people,  with  but  few 
exceptions,  turned  against  their  idol.  When  the 
Papal  Commissioners  entered  Florence  they 
Were  surrounded  by  the  dregs  of  the  people 
shouting,  "Death  to  the  Friar!"  The  Spanish 
desperado,  Francesco  Romolina,  Bishop  of  Ilerda, 
answered  back  with  a  smile,  "He  shall  die  with- 
out fail!"  In  fact,  the  Pope  had  instructed 
Romolina  to  put  Savonarola  to  death,  "even 
were  he  another  John  the  Baptist." 

Again  and  again  Savonarola  was  tortured  on 
the  rack.  His  replies  were  always  the  same;  but 
each  time  they  were  falsified  by  the  notaries. 
The  inquisitors  could  do  nothing  with  such  a  man. 
Then  came  the  last  scene  of  the  last  act.  A 
scaffold  was  built  in  the  public  square;  a  gibbet 
was  erected  at  one  end.  It  resembled  a  cross 
with  the  upper  part  shortened.  From  it  hung 
three  chains  and  three  halters.  The  halters  were 
for  Savonarola  and  his  two  companions;  the 
chains  were  to  hold  their  corpses  suspended  over 
the  fire. 

The  blasphemies  of  the  populace  surpassed 
anything  ever  witnessed  or  imagined  in  Florence, 
and  the  savage  cries  of  thousands  of  madmen 
resounded  through  the  streets  and  the  Piazza. 
The  vilest  criminals  were  released  from  prison  in 


SAVONAROLA  199 

order  to  add  a  more  terrible  frenzy  to  the  general 
delirium.  The  three  prisoners  were  ordered  to 
be  stripped  of  their  robes,  and  they  were  led  out 
in  their  tunics,  barefooted.  Savonarola  was  the 
last  to  be  executed.  He  met  his  death  amidst 
scenes  of  indescribable  horror,  and  the  Arrab- 
biati  hired  a  mob  of  boys  to  shout,  dance,  and 
throw  stones  at  the  half-consumed  victims. 


FRANCE  OLD   AND  NEW 

THERE  comes  a  time  in  the  history  of  every 
nation  when  to  the  casual  observer  the 
changes  that  occur  in  the  intellectual  world  seem 
sudden,  paradoxical,  and  without  apparent 
reason.  I  remember  the  time  when  "imperson- 
ality" was  the  leading  note  of  French  journal- 
ism; now  the  leading  note  is  personal.  Yet  the 
change  was  not  brought  about  suddenly.  Jour- 
nalism forced  the  French  Academy  to  become 
more  representative  than  it  was  under  the  Second 
Empire  of  Louis  Philippe,  when  it  accepted  a 
critic  like  Sainte-Beuve  and  a  poet  like  Lamartine 
while  excluding  Balzac.  Jules  Sandeau  was  the 
first  novelist  to  take  a  seat  among  the  so-called 
Immortels,  and  Prevost-Paradol  the  first  journal- 
ist. Thus  we  see  the  Academy  changes,  although 
the  process  of  change  is  slow,  the  spirit  timid 
and  the  vision  hazy.  The  new  spirit  in  French 
literature  and  philosophy  is  more  apparent  and 
much  more  striking  among  the  yoimg  writers, 
thinkers,  and  poets.  Between  these  and  the 
celebrities  of  middle  age  a  great  gulf  is  apparent. 
I  cannot  think  of  some  of  the  older  writers  with- 


FRANCE  OLD  AND  NEW    201 

but  a  feeling  that  they  belong  to  a  past  epoch 
which  is  out  of  touch  with  the  spirit  and  the  aims 
of  the  rising  generation  and  that  still  greater 
world  lying  beyond  Paris,  especially  the  world  of 
creative  thought  embodied  in  Anglo-American 
productivity.  For  instance,  a  representative 
writer  like  Anatole  France  has  no  idea  of  the 
vastness  and  variety  of  the  Hterary  world  be- 
yond that  of  his  own  country.  He  is  under  the 
fatal  illusion  that  writers  and  novelists  of  other 
countries  look  to  Paris  now  as  they  did  during 
the  great  days  of  the  romantic  movement,  when 
translations  of  Hugo's  Les  Miserables  appeared 
in  all  the  principal  languages  as  soon  as  the  work 
was  issued  in  French. 

Most  French  writers  of  middle  age  are  under 
the  illusion  that  Paris  must  be  as  compelling  to 
thinkers  as  it  is  to  women  in  the  world  of  fashion. 
But  while  Paris  can  still  set  the  fashions  for 
women,  its  most  famous  novelists  occupy  the 
position  in  the  world  of  thought  that  the  Know- 
Nothing  Party  occupied  in  politics  some  seventy 
years  ago.  For  instance,  the  difference  between 
the  books  of  Anatole  France  and  those  of  Pierre 
Loti  is  the  difference  between  wit  that  charms 
and  romance  that  fascinates.  Both  are  limited 
to  a  world  of  action  without  ideas.    Although  the 


202    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

greatest  creator  of  ''atmosphere"  in  the  world 
of  literature  to-day,  Pierre  Loti  is  sure  of  nothing. 
His  intellectual  world  is  bounded  on  one  side  by 
atmosphere,  on  the  other  by  sentiment;  it  is 
Like  a  vague  music  which  produces  no  psychic 
action  in  subconscious  thought;  he  is  as  limited 
without  wit  and  humour  as  Anatole  France  is  in 
their  full  possession.  The  graces  of  style  and 
humour  are  not  adequate  substitutes  for  the 
qualities  we  find  in  Hugo,  Balzac,  George  Sand, 
and  Flaubert;  in  their  presence  we  walk  not 
with  the  Graces  but  with  the  Gods.  Their  limita- 
tions were  not  apparent.  The  greatest  writers  of 
the  Second  Empire  did  not  limit  themselves  to 
atmosphere,  nor  to  feeling,  nor  to  subtle  expres- 
sions of  psychological  states,  nor  to  characterisa- 
tion. They  were  free  to  roam  the  world  of  will, 
intellect,  imagination,  and  ideas.  They  lived  in 
an  Empire  of  creative  thought,  while  the  writers 
of  the  present  live  in  a  Republic  of  vacillating  and 
negative  sentiment.  They  of  the  past  transcribed 
life;  the  Academicians  of  to-day  record  sensa- 
tions and  opinions,  the  things  that  hover  on  the 
surface  of  ideas.  Anatole  France,  Pierre  Loti, 
Maurice  Barres,  and  Marcel  Prevost  write  about 
the  things  most  appreciated  by  a  people  not  ready 
for  the  fundamental  principles  of  sound  demo- 


FRANCE  OLD  AND  NEW     203 

cracy  on  the  one  hand,  and  not  ripe  for  imperial 
ascendancy  on  the  other.  Maurice  Barres  has  a 
charm  all  his  own,  yet  he  seldom  succeeds  in 
creating  anytliing  more  than  atmosphere,  rare 
enough  in  itself  and  too  difficult  to  be  attained 
by  any  save  writers  of  real  distinction,  but  he 
is  held  in  the  same  bondage  as  his  gifted  con- 
frere, Anatole  France.  They  walk  within  the 
limits  of  the  same  Parisian  garden. 

Le  Jardin  de  Berenice  is  made  up  of  flowers  too 
frail  to  flourish  in  the  open  air;  they  belong  to 
the  hot-house.  Their  odour  is  too  delicate  and 
subtle,  and  their  form  and  nature  too  illusive, 
to  be  easily  classified  by  the  literary  botanist. 
Maurice  Barres  has  achieved  that  rarest  of  all 
things,  originality,  and  in  him,  as  in  Pierre  Loti, 
Nature  has  done  her  best  to  offset  the  common- 
place sentiments  of  the  modem  bourgeoisie  by 
a  manifestation  of  extreme  refinement  and  deli- 
cacy from  which  all  sense  of  power  has  vanished. 
Nothing  more  opposed  to  the  bourgeois  spirit 
coiild  be  imagined  than  the  subtle  irony  of  Ana- 
tole France,  the  romantic  remoteness  of  Pierre 
Loti,  and  the  quintessential  refinement  of  Maurice 
Barres.  These  and  some  other  French  writers  of 
our  time  express  themselves  in  a  language  which 
exhales  a  quality  too  subtle  to  be  distinguished 


204   THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

by  the  typical  Parisian  of  the  Third  Republic. 
The  great  writers  of  the  Second  Empire  had  posi- 
tive and  militant  convictions.  The  greatest 
writers  of  the  present  take  refuge  in  an  aristo- 
cracy of  atmosphere,  in  a  world  of  intellectual 
exclusiveness,  absolutely  remote  from  republi- 
can tastes  and  democratic  grooves  of  thought. 
Nothing  could  be  less  socialistic  than  the  art  of 
Anatole  France,  who  passes  for  a  socialist;  noth- 
ing could  be  less  popular  than  the  writings  of 
Pierre  Loti,  who  is  an  ofi&cer  in  the  Republican 
Navy;  nothing  more  removed  from  the  masses 
could  be  imagined  than  the  writings  of  Maurice 
Barres,  who  passes  for  a  sincere  patriot;  while 
Paul  Bourget,  a  Catholic,  preaches  against  the 
things  which  the  majority  of  Frenchmen  uphold. 
I  see  no  evidence  that  the  French  Academy  is 
more  democratic  now  than  it  was  under  the 
Empire.  The  more  democratic  the  Government 
becomes,  the  more  pronounced  the  line  that 
separates  the  best  writers  from  the  sentiments 
and  opinions  of  the  people  in  the  street.  Things 
remain  much  as  they  were  except  for  one  exceed- 
ingly curious  fact  —  the  writers  and  thinkers 
who  have  become  celebrated  are  more  exclusive 
than  were  the  great  writers  of  the  Second  Empire, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  masses  pride  them- 


FRANCE  OLD  AND  NEW    205 

selves  on  being  more  scientific  and  more  demo- 
cratic. Among  the  most  gifted  Academicians, 
feeling  and  atmosphere  take  the  place  of  the 
creative  and  militant  power  displayed  by  Hugo, 
Balzac,  and  Flaubert;  it  is  a  world  of  sentiment 
opposed  to  action,  refinement  opposed  to  move- 
ment, imagination  opposed  to  ideas. 

If  the  most  celebrated  French  writers  are  ultra- 
refined  and  negative,  the  younger  writers  are 
positive,  self-assertive,  and  often  militant.  They 
too  make  frequent  use  of  the  personal  pronoun, 
but  with  a  different  intention.  Considered  from 
a  psychic  view-point,  the  elderly  critics  are  often 
vacillating  and  sometimes  flippant.  Very  differ- 
ent are  the  young  writers  and  critics;  they  are 
fearlessly  independent  and  keenly  analytical. 
They  are  cosmopolitan  in  certain  directions, 
scientific,  mystical,  and  philosophical.  And  yet 
they  are  further  from  the  bourgeois  mind  than 
the  middle-aged  men  of  the  Academy,  more  re- 
mote from  the  opinions  and  the  sentiments  of 
the  man  in  the  street.  They  display  a  spirit  of 
research  unknown  to  writers  like  Barres,  France, 
and  Bourget.  They  have  discovered  worlds  of 
sentiment  and  experience  lying  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  Paris,  for  which  they  have  to  thank  poets 
like  Verhaeren  and  Whitman  —  admirably  trans- 


2o6    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

lated  by  M.  Leon  Bazalgette  —  and  writers  like 
Maeteriinck  and  Emerson.  The  tendency  is 
toward  a  cosmopolitan  culture,  but  I  cannot  see 
any  evidence  of  a  literary  socialism;  nor  can  I 
discover  any  evidence  of  philosophical  collec- 
tivism among  these  young  poets  and  writers.  On 
the  contrary,  there  is  more  individualism  than 
ever  before. 

Since  my  first  sojourn  in  Paris  in  1869  I  have 
witnessed  the  birth  and  death  of  several  literary 
and  artistic  movements,  among  them  "Parnas- 
sianism."  The  young  poets  of  1885  were  not 
influenced  by  the  "Parnassians,"  but  by  Baude- 
laire, Rimbaud,  and  Verlaine,  then  Mallarme, 
Laforgue,  and  some  others.  Out  of  these  groups 
there  arose  some  gifted  men  whose  names  are 
now  celebrated  among  lovers  of  poetry:  Moreas, 
the  Greek,  whom  I  used  to  see  playing  dominoes 
with  a  friend  at  the  Cafe  Voltaire  in  the  'eighties ; 
and  Henri  de  Regnier,  whom  I  often  met  at  the 
salon  of  Stephane  Mallarme,  and  for  whom  I 
predicted  a  seat  among  the  immortals;  and  later 
Paul  Fort,  to  name  but  these  out  of  a  score.  The 
real  individualism  began  about  1S85,  and  in 
1893  M.  Gabriel  Vicaire,  writing  in  the  Revue 
Hebdomadaire,  says  of  the  new  poets  and  their 
work :  "  Jamais  pareille  confusion  ne  s'etait  vue  " ; 


FRANCE  OLD  AND  NEW    207 

and  M.  Tristan  Dereme,  writing  in  Rhythm  for 
August,  191 2,  declares  that  in  this  respect  noth- 
ing has  been  changed  during  the  last  nineteen 
years.  There  are  no  "schools,"  he  says,  but 
many  doctrines,  and  even  the  theorists  are  among 
the  first  to  oppose  their  own  theories. 

If,  as  David  Hume  said,  there  is  a  standard  of 
taste,  there  are  not  many  young  writers  in  France 
who  have  any  desire  to  seek  a  standard.  The 
majority  plump  boldly  for  indi\'iduality.  This, 
of  course,  is  in  defiance  of  all  academical  prece- 
dent, and  the  recent  triumphs  of  Paul  Fort,  whose 
poetic  output  has  but  Httle  affinity  with  any  other 
French  poetry,  is  a  proof  of  the  great  change  in 
the  taste  of  the  younger  generation,  M.  Fort  hav- 
ing recently  received  the  title  of  "Prince  des 
Jeunes"  by  a  large  majority  of  votes  cast  exclu- 
sively by  writers  and  critics.  The  revolt  against 
the  old  classical  forms  is  even  more  pronounced 
than  that  headed  by  Hugo  in  1830,  but  there  is  a 
difference.  The  present  revolt  is  not  led  by  any 
one  man,  but  by  a  score.  Young  men  are  in 
revolt  against  academical  restrictions  and  philo- 
sophical systems;  and  if  the  older  men  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  masses  by  Hterary  refinement, 
the  young  men  are  equally  excluded,  but  in 
another  manner :  and  for  another  reason  they  are 


2o8    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

interested  in  things  which  are  too  subtle  and  too 
abstract  for  the  public,  too  psychic  even  for  the 
academical.  Many  of  these  young  men  are  bold 
enough  to  declare  a  positive  belief  in  the  things 
ignored  or  denied  by  the  older  writers  Uke  Ana- 
tole  France  and  Pierre  Loti.  They  are  no  longer 
afraid  of  ridicule.  Independence  is  the  keynote 
of  their  point  of  view,  a  free  expression  of  their 
personal  sentiments  and  their  personal  feelings 
their  leading  aim.  This  accounts  for  the  differ- 
ence of  style  and  the  multiplicity  of  individual 
beliefs.  Among  the  young  men  there  are  those 
who  might  be  taken  for  social  reformers  were  it 
not  that  they  are  without  system  and  without 
method.  Others  might  be  taken  for  pagan  wor- 
shippers of  Nature  were  it  not  that  they  have 
psychic  convictions  which  give  them  a  marked 
leaning  towards  Catholicism  or  Buddhism;  while 
the  number  who  are  absorbed  in  the  study  of 
purely  psychical  matters,  philosophical  or  experi- 
mental, surpasses  the  belief  of  persons  who  judge 
intellectual  Paris  by  the  things  said  and  done  by 
members  of  the  French  Academy.  It  cannot  be 
too  positively  stated  that  at  the  present  time 
there  is  hardly  a  member  of  that  body  who  has 
any  real  influence  on  the  minds  of  young  men. 
The  young  admire,  but  remain  independent; 


FRANCE  OLD  AND  NEW     209 

they  read,  but  remain  uninfluenced.  The  general 
tendency  is  towards  a  spiritualised  action,  in- 
dependent of  fixed  literary  forms,  towards  spirit- 
ual influence  as  opposed  to  mere  sentiments  and 
opinions ;  and  in  this  tendency  the  present  move- 
ment in  no  way  resembles  the  Parnassian  move- 
ment which  was  headed  by  the  marmorean  stoic, 
Leconte  de  Lisle.  There  is  no  room  now  for  the 
stoical  poet  or  the  stoical  thinker,  although  there 
are  those  who  may  be  classed  as  philosophical 
mystics  owing  to  the  serene  way  in  which  they 
look  at  life,  art,  and  nature.  But  the  calm  sur- 
face under  which  some  of  them  work  serves  but 
to  hide  a  spirit  of  ethical  and  scientific  exploration 
and  a  consciousness  of  the  tremendous  mysteries 
that  surround  and  envelop  the  soul,  mysteries 
never  so  imperative  in  their  demands  as  at  this 
stage  of  hmnan  progress. 

Naturally,  where  there  are  so  many  different 
temperaments  at  work  trying  to  voice  their  con- 
victions and  impressions,  incoherence  must  be  a 
marked  feature  of  much  of  the  printed  work. 
Anyone  not  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  Paris  would,  after  a  casual  glance 
at  many  of  the  books  recently  published,  incline 
to  the  opinion  that  incoherence  is  the  ke)niote  to 
a  universal  cacophony  of  verbal  sounds  and  philo- 


2IO    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

sophical  disorder.  Had  I  not  known  Paris  under 
the  Second  Empire  and  followed  with  a  critical 
eye  the  literary,  political,  social,  and  artistic 
schools  and  movements  that  have  come  and  gone 
since  1869,  I  might  now  be  under  the  impression 
that  the  real  France  is  represented  by  the  elderly 
men  like  Bourget  and  Barres,  and  that  the  yoimg 
men  are  without  influence  because  seemingly 
without  order,  method,  or  fixed  purpose.  But 
it  is  the  appearance  which  deceives  and  confuses. 
Underneath  the  surface,  beneath  the  incoherence 
and  the  contradiction,  there  may  be  discovered 
a  spirit  of  unity  compact  enough  to  make  the 
typical  Academician  pause  and  reflect  on  the 
changes  due  within  the  next  ten  years.  The 
French  Academy  will  soon  cease  to  be  the  collec- 
tive centre  of  writers  of  talent  who  are  without 
positive  convictions.  The  younger  men  will  give 
to  it  a  new  philosophy  and  a  psychic  stimulus 
which  will  render  materialism  futile  and  sordid  in 
comparison. 

If  anyone  doubts  the  power  and  originality 
displayed  among  the  ranks  of  young  writers, 
poets,  and  thinkers  in  France  to-day,  I  advise 
a  careful  perusal  of  M.  Alexandre  Mercereau's 
book,  La  Litter  ature  et  les  I  dees  Nouvelles.  For 
critical  insight  and  discriminating  judgment  it 


FRANCE  OLD  AND  NEW     211 

has  not  been  surpassed  by  any  work  written  in 
French  during  the  past  decade.  Alexandre  Mer- 
cereau  is  a  young  man,  and  in  the  short  space  of 
three  or  four  years  has  created  for  himself  a  posi- 
tion in  the  intellectual  world  of  Paris  that  seems 
to  me  unique.  At  the  head  of  several  groups  of 
writers  and  artists,  he  is  in  a  position  to  render  a 
sane  and  just  account  of  the  general  tendency  of 
the  young  minds  who  are  destined  to  exert  a  pro- 
fornid  influence  on  literary  thought  in  France 
during  the  next  two  or  three  decades. 

To  do  justice  to  this  book  in  a  short  resume 
would  be  impossible.  M.  Mercereau  is  severely 
critical  and  yet  surprisingly  just,  free  from  timid 
and  vulgar  prejudices,  astonishingly  cosmopolitan 
in  his  outlook  on  philosophical  thought  and  lit- 
erary productivity.  Viewed  in  this  light  I  con- 
sider him  as  representing  the  highest  type  of  the 
new  tendency  in  the  world  of  intellectual  expres- 
sion in  the  France  of  our  day.  Without  such 
writers  and  thinkers  the  outlook  on  the  future 
would  be  gloomy  indeed.  His  ascendancy  means 
the  introduction  into  French  philosophy,  art,  and 
literature  of  a  sound  spirit  of  progress  and  an 
optimism  devoid  of  sentimental  weakness  and 
vacillating  opinion.  Alexandre  Mercereau  is  a 
writer  and  thinker  with  ideas  of  his  own,  and  he 


212    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

has  rightly  named  his  book  La  Litterature  et  les 
Idees  Nouvelles.  Here  is  a  Parisian  born  who 
understands  and  appreciates  foreign  genius  Uke 
Emerson,  Whitman,  Verhaeren,  William  James, 
and  Ruskin,  and  his  influence  on  the  minds  of 
young  poets,  writers,  and  philosophers  has  been 
widespread  and  potent. 


THE  NEW  ERA 


NATIONS  develop  according  to  fixed  law,  and 
we  know  what  material  progress  and  pros- 
perity mean.  The  merest  tyro  can  tell  the  dif- 
ference between  a  country  which  has  everything 
in  its  favour  and  one  which  has  everything 
against  it. 

National  misfortunes  are  never  avoided  by  the 
excitement  of  change  and  the  realism  of  war. 
On  the  contrary,  misfortune  follows  in  the  train 
of  every  victory  gained  for  the  sake  of  personal 
aggrandisement.  Seek  where  we  may  in  history, 
the  note  of  warning  is  there;  the  futihty  of  do- 
minion for  the  sake  of  dominion. 

In  order  to  see  things  as  much  as  possible  as 
they  are,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  lessons  of 
history.  What  are  the  earliest  signs  of  national 
decadence?  How  are  they  manifest  to  the  minds 
of  thinkers  and  philosophers?  There  is  but  one 
answer:  in  the  disintegration  of  social,  religious, 
and  poKtical  forces.  Wherever  decadence  has 
already  set  in,  there  you  will  find  the  hand  on  the 


214    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

milestones  pointing  towards  the  vale  of  ease  and 
lethargy,  where  the  mind  may  dream  in  the  lazy 
afternoon  of  life,  and  where  the  flight  of  time  has 
no  longer  any  meaning.  The  descent  may  be 
slow;  it  may  proceed  in  a  joyous  and  a  merry 
mood,  or  it  may  laugh  and  weep  by  turns,  but  the 
descent  never  ceases. 

Dickens  depicted  the  happy-go-lucky  mood  of 
the  typical  Londoner  of  his  time  with  masterly 
fidelity  in  photographic  word-pictures,  by  which 
he  unconsciously  exposes  the  helplessness,  the 
impotence,  and  the  illusions  of  the  people  of 
London.  The  works  of  Dickens  all  point  toward 
municipal  and  social  decrepitude.  The  principal 
characters  manifest  a  sentimental  humor  or  a 
cynical  selfishness  which  belongs  to  the  early 
symptoms  of  national  helplessness.  They  live 
in  a  world  of  illusions,  never  fully  realising  their 
condition  as  working,  thinking  entities.  Micaw- 
ber,  among  the  people,  is  the  living  symbol  of 
that  imdiscerning  optimism,  now  so  general,  in 
which,  at  last,  many  leaders  of  state-craft  and 
religion  are  steeped.  Dickens  depicted  men  and 
conditions  as  he  found  them,  and  the  significance 
of  his  work  lies  not  in  his  plots  and  his  style,  but 
in  the  faithfulness  of  his  characterisation. 

With  the  age  of  Dickens  came  dissensions  in 


THE  NEW  ERA  215 

the  Established  Church.  Episcopalianism  was 
imdermmed  by  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  Sal- 
vation Army,  while  in  the  world  of  poHtics  a 
band  of  men  appeared  whose  chief  business  lay 
with  the  chimeras  that  hover  about  the  horizon 
of  the  dusky  future.  They  sought  excitement 
and  glory  in  distant  countries,  in  questions  and 
interests  that  in  no  way  concerned  the  welfare 
of  the  people  at  home,  in  regions  that  touch 
the  romantic,  and  in  adventures  that  touch  the 
fabulous. 

A  certain  capricious  himiour,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  stoical  demeanour  on  the  other,  precede 
and  predict  national  disruption.  Writers  who 
foresee  a  decline  often  turn  to  cynicism  or  stoicism 
for  relief.  Grecian  ascendancy  was  brought  to  an 
end  not  so  much  by  what  philosophers  taught  as 
by  what  the  poHticians  and  generals  did.  The 
cynics  and  the  satirists,  headed  by  Antisthenes 
and  Aristophanes,  appeared  just  at  the  time 
when  Athens  thought  herself  secure  against  civil 
and  mihtary  decadence;  but  Alexander  followed, 
with  his  feverish  orgies  of  conquest  in  distant 
lands,  and  material  disruption  began. 

In  a  like  manner  the  humoristic  and  satirical 
element  in  Dickens  and  Thackeray  marks  an 
epoch  in  the  social  history  of  England.     Here, 


2i6    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

too,  we  find  the  spirit  of  melancholy  seeking  relief 
and  distraction  in  comical  description  and  cynical 
humour.  For  genius  can  do  no  more  than  observe 
and  depict  contemporary  man.  The  great  deline- 
ators and  caricaturists  of  history  invented  noth- 
ing. There  is  no  such  thing  as  the  creation  of  a 
tjqDe.  The  writers  of  every  age,  be  they  satirical, 
philosophical,  or  sentimental,  are  impressed  and 
impelled  by  the  persons  and  events  of  their  own 
epoch.  Thus  we  find  Juvenal  satirising  decadent 
and  Imperial  Rome,  while  a  little  later  Epictetus 
and  Aurelius  took  refuge  in  stoical  resignation. 
Under  the  Republic  there  was  no  need  for  stoicism 
and  no  occasion  for  satire.  So,  too,  Epicurus  ap- 
peared when  Athens  had  witnessed  her  greatest 
triumphs,  and  not  very  long  before  Greece  be- 
came a  province  of  Rome. 

Thinkers,  prophets,  philosophers,  and  novelists 
all  make  their  appearance  at  the  proper  time. 
Men  of  genius  never  appear  too  soon  or  too  late. 
Dickens  represented  the  happy-go-lucky,  senti- 
mental humour  of  the  people;  Thackeray  the 
cynicism  and  the  snobbery  of  the  middle  classes; 
George  Eliot  the  philosophical  element  of  the 
cultured  few.  She  represented  modernised  stoi- 
cism. It  was  Seneca  and  Aurelius  clothed  in  Vic- 
torian romance;  it  was  the  science  and  resignation 


THE  NEW  ERA  217 

of  Epicurus  and  Epictetus  brought  down  to  our 
very  doors,  speaking  through  the  illusions  of 
imperial  power,  evading  to  the  last  the  secret 
presentiment  of  social  and  political  disruption. 

Thus  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  two 
formidable  signs,  the  like  of  which  Europe  has 
not  seen  since  the  beginning  of  the  Roman  de- 
cline: a  cheap  stoicism  and  puerile  cynicism. 
These  symptoms  of  decadence,  long  apparent  in 
Continental  Europe,  are  now  palpably  visible  in 
England,  where  cynicism  has  assumed  a  form 
that  is  almost  devoid  of  sensibility,  and  where 
pessimism  is  attaining  the  last  limits  of  moral 
resignation. 

In  the  Elizabethan  age  there  was  no  place  for 
the  cynical,  the  satirical,  and  the  stoical.  An  age 
of  action  and  progress  is  an  age  of  hope,  and  the 
idea  that  poets,  writers,  and  artists  spring  up  here 
and  there  Uke  spurts  of  capricious  Nature  is  a 
superstition.  Nowhere  is  there  a  manifestation 
of  intellect  which  has  not  a  direct  bearing  on  the 
poKtical  and  social  world  of  fact  and  experience. 
Blind  though  the  forces  of  Nature  appear  to  be, 
still  there  are  laws  regulating  these  forces.  The 
optimistic  prophecies  of  Walt  Whitman,  for 
instance,  were  no  haphazard  production  of  a 
dreamer,  but  of  one  reasoning  from  cause  to  effect 


2i8    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

in  a  country  teeming  with  intellectual  and  physi- 
cal energy.  Had  Whitman  produced  his  poems 
in  London  they  would  have  mirrored  the  lethargy 
and  the  indifference  of  the  larger  part  of  its 
inhabitants. 

The  art-world  has  expressed  the  mood  of  the 
passing  dispensation.  Burne- Jones  and  Rossetti 
were  masters  of  the  illusive,  the  immaterial.  The 
sadness  which  crowns  the  summit  of  achievement, 
the  melancholy  coeval  with  perfection  attained, 
the  longing  for  the  things  that  are  passed,  all  this 
was  transcribed  on  canvas  with  singular  beauty 
and  vividness.  This  is  why  the  pictures  of  these 
masters  give  the  impression  of  artistic  dreams, 
of  something  belonging  to  another  age. 

In  contrast  to  this  we  have  the  art  of  the  cari- 
caturist and  the  satirical  symbolist,  typifying 
an  age  of  cynical  callousness.  In  England  and 
France  caricaturists  are  not  only  doing  with  the 
pencil  what  Dickens  and  Thackeray  did  with  the 
pen,  but  they  have  arrived  at  a  far  closer  intimacy 
with  human  deceits  and  chimerical  ambitions. 
Never  in  the  history  of  English  art  has  anything 
appeared  at  all  comparable  to  the  drawings  of 
the  late  Aubrey  Beardsley.  With  an  artistic  in- 
sight into  the  social  foibles  and  the  follies  of  the 
epoch  he  added  something  that  went  straight  to 


THE  NEW  ERA  219 

the  heart  of  character,  and  by  a  sort  of  Mephisto- 
phelian  penetration  depicted  the  naked  soul  of 
the  time.  This,  too,  was  an  art  that  attained  the 
apex  of  delicacy  and  precision,  a  perfection  which 
laughed  at  perfection,  a  consciousness  turned  in 
upon  itself,  mindful  at  once  of  power  and  decline. 
And  it  is  not  only  art  that  has  furnished  bitter 
examples  of  the  breaking  up  of  old  ideals  and  old 
systems.  Music  has  been  evoked  in  the  cause  of 
sarcasm,  irony,  and  ridicule.  In  the  world  of 
music  we  are  confronted  with  the  tri\aal  on  the 
one  hand,  and  on  the  other  with  the  Wagnerian 
symbols  of  the  futile  and  the  chimerical.  The 
first  stands  for  the  persiflage  of  the  masses,  the 
second  represents  a  hopeless  struggle  against  the 
irremediable.  Wagner's  final  pronouncement  is 
Renunciation.  Parsifal,  for  example,  means  nega- 
tive pessimism.  Parsifal  renounces  the  struggle 
for  life,  and  this,  after  all,  is  the  Schopenhauerian 
philosophy  distilled  into  music.  An  earthly  Nir- 
vana is  evoked  by  a  combined  musical  and  verbal 
magic  in  which  all  the  arts  have  a  place,  in  which 
illusion  is  followed  by  disenchantment  and  weari- 
ness. Wagner's  work  symbolises  the  disruption  of 
the  old  civilisation.  He  scaled  the  heights  of  long- 
tried  systems,  and  from  the  last  pinnacle  sounded 
the  bugle-call  of  disillusion  and  retreat. 


220    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

The  call  was  heard  by  Germany,  France,  and 
England,  who  recognised  in  it  a  solace  for  error 
and  deception.  When,  in  "Parsifal,"  the  walls 
of  the  palace  of  illusion  fall  to  the  ground  with  a 
crash,  something  more  than  mere  personal  dis- 
enchantment is  symbolised.  The  falling  of  the 
walls  of  the  house  of  pleasure  and  sense  typifies 
the  dislocation  of  every  system  and  thing  founded 
on  material  dominion.  How  comes  it  that  such  a 
work  was  produced  during  the  ascendancy  of  a 
man  like  Bismarck?  Genius  everywhere  has  an 
ascendancy  over  al'  other  manifestations  of  intel- 
lect, and  its  business  is  to  see  as  well  as  to  act. 

II 

When  we  leave  the  world  of  art  and  music  and 
enter  that  of  the  drama  we  are  confronted  once 
more  by  a  repetition  of  the  signs  and  symptoms 
of  cynical  indifference  on  one  hand  and  senti- 
mental weakness  on  the  other.  Mr.  Pinero  pro- 
duces stage  dialogues  so  true  to  contemporary 
life  that  many  of  his  plays  are  masterpieces  of 
their  kind.  And  they  represent  social  apathy, 
ironical  humour,  trivial  ambitions,  and  vulgar 
passions.  He  possesses  one  of  the  most  observ- 
ing and  penetrating  minds  that  ever  depicted  the 


THE  NEW  ERA  221 

follies  of  the  human  heart.  In  his  plays,  men 
and  women  of  the  world  see  themselves  as  in  a 
mirror.  And  they  are  at  once  nonchalant  and 
eager,  frivolous  and  tragic,  witty  and  pathetic. 
Their  wealth  is  as  millstones,  and  their  titles 
hindrances,  yet,  from  an  instinct  born  of  degen- 
eracy, they  seek  greater  wealth  and  higher  titles, 
and  the  dramatic  ensemble  represents  a  cynical 
and  callous  class  of  people,  born  without  the 
instinct  of  affection  and  bred  without  distinction 
of  feeling.  Mind  and  heart  are  wanting  here  for 
the  reason  that  in  the  typical  society  of  the  day 
there  is  no  sense  of  the  human  and  confraternal. 
In  the  plays  of  Mr.  Sydney  Grundy  and  others 
the  same  frankness  and  fideUty  to  the  spirit  of  the 
time  are  manifest.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
the  romantic  drama,  meaningless  and  impotent. 
If  anyone  doubts  this  it  is  only  necessary  to  con- 
sider for  a  moment  the  negative  results  of  The 
Sign  of  the  Cross.  The  very  success  of  this  play 
attested  its  impotence  as  a  reUgious  factor.  The 
emotion  which  it  caused  was  another  symptom 
of  dramatic  and  reHgious  hysteria.  That  play 
galvanised  the  nerves  of  a  people  long  tired  of 
the  ordinary  religious  emotions,  of  a  people 
fatigued  by  the  monotony  of  chapel-going  and 
Salvation  Army  gymnastics,  of  a  people  in  need 


222    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

of  a  glimpse  of  the  pagan  arena,  a  cry  from  the 
dungeons  of  the  Roman  Coliseum,  the  mingled 
horrors  and  splendours  of  Imperial  and  neurotic 
Rome;  in  need,  above  all  things,  of  the  spectac- 
ular, the  poignant,  and  the  puerile. 

The  masses  would  seek  relief  in  signs  and  in 
symbols,  in  promises  of  to-morrow,  in  shifting 
scenes  and  varying  movement,  in  panoramic  and 
illusive  pleasures  which  keep  the  mind  from  the 
real  cause  of  misery  and  the  heart  from  the  real 
cause  of  sorrow.  How  to  escape  from  the  reality 
is  the  one  consuming  thought  of  the  hour.  Be- 
cause, hidden  deep  down  in  the  recesses  of  human 
nature,  there  dwells  a  consciousness  of  decay  and 
helplessness. 

This  consuming  desire  to  escape  is  the  cause 
of  romantic  adventure,  symbolical  ideahsm, 
feverish  commercial  activity,  inane  social  ambi- 
tions, political  excitement,  spectacular  show,  and 
the  chimeras  of  war.  Here  lies  the  inner  and 
secret  meaning  of  that  movement  known  as  the 
Celtic  Renaissance.  After  Dickens  and  Thack- 
eray, George  Eliot  and  George  Meredith,  after 
Browning,  Tennyson,  and  Swinburne,  after  three 
centuries  of  Hterary  glory  unequalled  in  the 
history  of  the  world  we  arrive  at  a  period  when 
aspiration,   sentiment,    and   emotion   assume   a 


THE  NEW  ERA  223 

mystical  and  symbolical  form.  A  climax  has  been 
attained  in  the  long  series  of  literary  schools. 
But  in  the  realm  of  British  ascendancy  it  means 
the  passing  from  a  dream  of  contentment  to  a  con- 
sciousness the  reality  of  which  is  again  screened 
by  a  veil  of  poetic  and  allegorical  illusion.  For 
this  literary  perfection  means  that  hope  and  faith 
have  reached  a  barrier,  and  a  refuge  is  sought  in  a 
region  of  symboHcal  mysticism,  pure  and  noble  in 
itself,  but  still  quixotic  and  allusive. 

If  Mr.  Yeats  wilHngly  seeks  the  legendary  and 
the  symbolical,  Mr.  Kipling  tries  _to  escape  by 
means  of  the  active.  But  while  Mr.  Yeats  takes 
refuge  in  a  world  of  poetic  symbols  which  he  has 
created  for  himself,  Mr.  Kipling,  without  knowing 
it,  is  living  in  a  fool's  paradise.  The  stimulant  of 
Mr.  Kiphng's  verse  and  prose  may  be  Kkened  to 
the  spurs  apphed  to  a  tired  horse.  His  writings 
stimulate,  but,  like  all  stimulants,  they  do  no  more 
than  make  the  patient  think  himself  stronger.  In 
reahty  there  has  been  no  strength  gained.  The 
heart  of  the  Empire  is  London,  and  he  has  left  it 
untouched.  He  has  dissected  the  veins,  sinews, 
and  arteries  of  the  Empire,  but  the  heart  he  has 
scarcely  seen.  He  has  been  deceived  by  appear- 
ances. At  a  distance  everything  looks  promis- 
ing; the  young  countries  have  before  them  a  great 


224    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

future,  and  action  is  visible  everywhere  without  an 
immediate  danger  of  reaction.  He  is  good  enough 
to  bid  the  patient  at  home  look  beyond  himself 
and  his  surroundings  for  relief,  and  he  bids  him 
hope  without  a  shadow  of  practical  or  material 
benefit.  For  the  young  emigrant  this  is  well;  for 
the  overgrown,  lethargic  metropoUs  it  is  optimis- 
tic poison.  It  means  that  for  the  home  habitant 
of  the  British  Empire  fiction  is  offered  and  ac- 
cepted in  lieu  of  the  real  and  the  practical;  it 
means  that  the  foreign  wine  of  life  is  preferable 
to  bread  made  at  home;  it  means  joy  for  the 
robust  young  adventurer  who  leaves  England 
never  to  return,  but  for  the  Mother  Country 
it  means  decay  and  disaster.  For  while  Mr, 
Kipling  plants  one  tree  he  eradicates  two  old 
ones. 

We  have,  therefore,  two  forces  in  literature 
which  demonstrate  by  a  sort  of  prescience  the 
extremity  of  material  dominion.  The  Celtic 
Renaissance  is  an  indirect  proclamation  by  sym- 
bols of  the  close  of  the  old  dispensation,  while 
the  writers  of  actuality  announce  the  end  by  go- 
ing direct  to  fact  and  experience,  despising  politi- 
cal pretension  and  optimistic  superstition.  And 
thus  from  the  region  of  poetic  intuition  we  have 
a  prophetic  cry,  and  from  the  plane  of  actual  fact 


THE  NEW  ERA  225 

the  voice  of  the  world-wise  seer.  In  the  writings 
of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  we  have  romantic 
idealism,  which  was  this  gifted  author's  mode  of 
escape  from  dying  systems.  Romantic  adventure, 
romantic  action,  rendered  as  real  as  possible;  a 
never-ending  bustle  and  movement  typifying 
everything  modern  in  adventure  and  suggestmg 
everything  mediaeval  in  spirit!  With  a  mind  at 
once  critical  and  philosophical  he  refused  to  look 
at  things  as  they  existed  in  his  native  country. 
An  escape  was  eagerly  sought,  imtil  at  last  it  was 
foimd  in  remoteness  and  seclusion;  yet  still  in  a 
sort  of  romantic  action. 

It  is  this  rush  to  escape  from  the  pain  and  the 
turmoil  of  monotony  and  routine  which  consti- 
tutes the  striking  similarity  between  Mr.  Kipling 
and  Robert  Louis  Stevenson.  Notwithstanding 
the  difference  between  the  culture  of  Steven- 
son and  the  rugged  power  of  Mr.  Kipling,  they 
belong  to  the  same  school.  But  a  wide  gulf  sepa- 
rates Mr.  Kipling  from  Dickens.  For  Dickens, 
as  well  as  Thackeray  and  George  EHot,  dealt 
with  the  life  and  manners  of  their  own  people 
and  country.  Mr.  Kipling  repudiates  London. 
He  leaves  the  Mother  Country  with  as  much 
dehberation  as  an  emigrant  would  who  no  longer 
has  any  binding  S3aiipathy  with  her  customs  or 


226    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

her  people.    He  flees  the  thing  that  is,  to  seek 
the  thing  that  is  not. 

It  is  astounding  that  in  the  hour  of  need,  when 
London  and  the  great  cities  of  England  are  swarm- 
ing with  poverty-stricken  and  helpless  people,  at 
a  time  when  all  the  signs  of  unrest  and  disintegra- 
tion are  plainly  manifest,  literature  of  this  kind 
can  not  only  gain  the  popular  ear,  but  that  of 
the  classes  which  govern.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  assert  that  the  majority  of  popular  Enghsh 
authors  belong  to  the  chimerical  school.  The 
reading  pubhc,  caring  only  to  escape  from  the 
actual  through  the  open  door  of  legend  and  make- 
believe,  mistake  the  mythical  for  the  mystical,  so 
that  what  is  true  in  the  political  world  is  also  true 
in  the  world  of  literature.  If  the  governing 
powers  find  momentary  escape  in  the  excitement 
of  sport  and  luxurious  living,  the  reading  public 
finds  a  narcotic  in  fictional  nonsense,  one  popular 
novelist  going  so  far  as  to  pack  three  dukes  into 
one  novel,  and  this  at  a  time  when  we  are  asked 
to  believe  in  the  great  vogue  of  democratic  ideals. 
It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  the  middle-class  mind 
of  the  present  day  rests  secure  in  the  fool's  para- 
dise of  popular  romance  and  popular  plays. 


THE  NEW  ERA  227 

III 

It  took  three  centuries  for  the  hand  of  progress 
to  mark  the  high  noon  of  Empire,  which  arrived 
with  Elizabeth.  Athens  and  Rome  both  followed 
the  same  route  marked  by  the  same  inexorable 
law.  We  are  at  the  close  of  a  dispensation  which 
has  lasted  for  six  hundred  years. 

The  Elizabethan  era  was  one  of  proud  rulers, 
proud  adventurers,  and  proud  moralists.  Vanity 
and  sentimentality  were  crushed  under  the  power 
of  authority  or  held  in  abeyance  under  the  weight 
of  dignity.  Work  and  faith  are  supreme  m  an  age 
of  pride,  scepticism  and  pretence  in  an  age  of 
vanity.  Proud  nations  are  unconscious  of  the 
thing  that  braces  them  to  perpetual  victory,  and 
when  pride  becomes  self-conscious  vanity  sets  in 
and  decline  is  certain. 

National  security  leads  to  individual  indolence, 
the  delusion  of  collective  unity,  and  the  illusions 
of  personal  efficiency.  Once  on  the  decUne,  the 
optimist  begins  to  boast.  Nationally,  it  is  the 
optimist  who  is  negative,  the  pessimist  who  is 
positive  —  he  is  the  watcher  on  the  tower. 

Vain  optimism  leads  to  vainglory,  and  the  re- 
sult is  sentimentality.  The  sentimental  has  ruled 
Christendom  for  nearly  two  thousand  years.    But 


228    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

there  were  periods  when  it  did  not  rule  in  the 
world  of  politics.  Bonaparte  and  Bismarck  rose 
superior  to  all  manifestations  and  surprises  of 
the  sentimental;  yet  England  remains  chained 
to  this  weakness  in  politics,  in  religion,  in  art,  in 
literature,  in  music,  in  charity,  and  utilitarianism. 
From  being  weak  and  effeminate  the  sentimental 
has  now  become  threatening  and  vicious.  Its 
politics  is  only  rivalled  by  its  pulpit.  Many  of 
the  churches  are  governed  by  men  who  lack  the 
courage  to  preach  punishment,  by  agnostics  who 
have  long  parted  with  the  anchor  of  faith,  clutch- 
ing at  the  last  straws  of  hope  in  a  sea  of  conflict- 
ing and  baffling  currents. 

Examine  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  persistent  con- 
servation of  so  many  illusions.  The  reason  is  to 
be  foimd  in  the  seeming  security  bestowed  by 
vast  territorial  possessions  and  the  false  intel- 
lectuality bestowed  by  vast  material  wealth. 
England  has  been  dreaming  ever  since  the  de- 
struction of  the  Spanish  Armada.  During  the 
Napoleonic  game  on  the  chess-board  of  Europe, 
when  crowned  heads  were  the  pawns,  England 
felt  some  slight  emotional  shocks  while  watching 
the  players.  Waterloo  was  an  earthquake  only 
felt  in  England  as  a  tremor.  It  was  hardly  more 
than  the  excitement  of  a  Derby  witnessed  at  a 


THE  NEW  ERA  229 

great  distance.  The  illusions  of  security  aug- 
mented with  the  capture  of  Napoleon.  The  Titan 
dead,  nothing  remained  to  menace  the  nation. 
Comfort  now  slipped  into  the  lap  of  luxury,  ease 
into  the  lap  of  indolence,  opulence  changed  to 
arrogant  optimism,  and  religion  to  a  species  of 
hypocrisy  which  passed  the  bounds  of  foreign 
credibility. 

Micawbers  made  their  appearance  on  the  one 
hand  and  predatory  Shylocks  on  the  other.  At 
this  time  the  German  States  were  little  more  than 
coloured  blots  on  the  map  situated  between 
France  and  Russia,  which  made  the  map  interest- 
ing in  the  eyes  of  the  sentimental  and  the  roman- 
tic. France  was  a  nation  that  only  needed  patting 
on  the  back;  Italy  a  place  for  pleasure  tours; 
America  a  combination  of  wilderness  and  negroes. 

Into  this  desert  of  chimeras  came  the  scientific 
agnostic,  a  personage  unknown  elsewhere  in  the 
whole  world  of  learning.  From  the  laboratory 
he  entered  the  pulpit,  and,  like  a  human  wolf  in 
sheep's  clothing,  preached  a  religion  of  flattery 
to  sentimental  Red  Ridinghoods  in  the  front  pews 
and  blue-stocking  sceptics  looking  down  from 
the  gallery.  British  science  here  gave  the  lie  to 
British  optimism,  because  agnosticism  is  the 
bivouac  of  tired  minds  in  a  wilderness  of  illusions. 


230    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

In  a  dying  dispensation  everything  partakes 
of  doubt  and  fatigue.  Our  philosophy  is  now  a 
hybrid  jumble  of  physical  science,  psychic  delu- 
sions, sentimental  morality,  and  pusillanimous 
patriotism.  We  are  intellectually  incapable  of 
grappling  with  the  draconian  maxims  of  the  Con- 
tinental giants  whose  works  have  freed  Germany 
and  France  from  the  incubus  of  ethical  lethargy 
and  intellectual  senility.  At  a  time  when  the 
leading  thinkers  of  Continental  Europe  have  ac- 
cepted a  positive  philosophy  of  life  we  are  steeped 
in  the  old  mode  —  the  sentimental  rules  us  with 
an  iron  hand,  the  yoke  of  the  negative  drags  us 
to  the  gutter  of  intellectual  pauperism.  We  have 
no  voice  in  the  counsels  of  Continental  thinkers. 
Darwin  discovered  a  path  into  a  new  country; 
foreign  philosophers  and  scientists  have  found 
the  treasures.  These  treasures  we  repudiate 
with  the  scorn  which  could  only  have  originated 
in  a  species  of  insanity  caused  by  perverted  pride 
and  degenerate  optimism. 

A  score  of  isms  unheard  of  in  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  and  Austria  flourish,  in  the  hour  when 
every  nerve  of  the  national  body-politic  ought  to 
be  strained  towards  grappling  with  the  impend- 
ing crisis.  These  isms  have  turned  us  into  a 
psychological   paradox;    we   flirt   with   science, 


THE  NEW  ERA  231 

dabble  in  art,  and  use  religion  as  a  fashionable 
function. 

Authority  has  gone  from  Episcopalianism  and 
power  from  the  Dissenters.  Bishops  apologise 
before  preaching  to  unwilling  congregations. 
Where  would  our  clergy  be  without  the  faults 
and  the  vices  of  the  poor?  Without  the  slums 
there  would  be  nothing  to  contrast  with  Imperial 
splendour,  without  our  rags  nothing  to  contrast 
with  the  Royal  ermine. 

A  great  gulf  separates  us  from  Continental 
thought.  It  is  forty  years  since  we  ceased  to  bear 
any  relationship  with  the  German  people.  To- 
day we  stand  separated  by  philosophy,  separated 
by  militarism,  by  social  aims  and  material  watch- 
words. The  closing  dispensation  finds  us  between 
two  stools.  The  question  of  disarmament  is  in 
itself  a  sign  of  sentimental  degeneracy.  The  fact 
that  we  possess  men  like  Andrew  Carnegie,  who 
are  naive  enough  to  cry  "Peace,  peace!"  before 
the  Teutonic  Juggernaut,  ought  to  be  enough  to 
bring  the  most  wavering  doubters  to  their  senses. 
It  requires  Anglo-maniacal  effrontery  to  broach 
the  subject  of  disarmament  when  dealing  with 
a  people  like  the  Germans.  Whence  comes  this 
effrontery?  From  ignorance  of  the  Bismarckian 
ambition,  ignorance  of  the  Nietzschian  philoso- 


232    THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

phy,  ignorance  of  the  tendency  of  German  youth 
to  these  ambitions  and  ideals,  ignorance  of  every- 
thing pertaining  to  the  Teutonic  race  of  to-day. 

Germany  entered  upon  a  new  era  in  1866,  when 
she  defeated  Austria.  The  Imperial  seal  of  blood 
and  iron  was  affixed  to  this  epoch  on  the  day 
Sedan  capitulated  in  1870.  Ten  years  later  a 
philosopher  arose  who  imposed  a  new  scale  of 
moral  values  to  the  iron  mandates  of  Bismarck 
and  made  it  impossible  for  the  German  people 
ever  again  to  think,  write,  or  act  in  the  senti- 
mental mode. 

In  consequence  of  these  facts,  Germany  is 
forty  years  ahead  of  England  and  America,  and 
we  are  still  in  the  agonies  of  the  dying  dispensa- 
tion. We  are  about  to  enter  a  phase  of  existence 
so  new,  so  strange,  so  unlike,  so  fantastically 
paradoxical,  so  extravagantly  unhistorical,  so 
ironically  bewildering  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
bring  home  to  the  minds  of  the  vmlettered  masses 
anything  like  an  adequate  sense  of  the  situation. 

For  good  or  for  bad,  for  better  or  for  worse,  the 
dawn  of  the  new  dispensation  will  see  China  a 
military  nation.  The  Juggernaut  of  events  will 
not  stop  to  persuade,  will  not  stop  to  argue,  will 
not  stop  to  sentimentalise,  will  not  stop  to  reason. 
It  will  move  on,  drawn  by  the  unnamed  beasts 


THE  NEW  ERA  233 

whose  horns  are  sealed  with  the  fulness  of  Time, 
whose  hoofs  are  shod  with  bands  of  steel  driven 
by  the  force  of  destiny.     Multitudes  await  its 
coming,  and  the  question  arises  how  many  will 
prostrate  themselves  before  the  sinister  car  com- 
pletes one  full  circle.    It  is  destiny  we  now  have 
to  face.    But  the  people,  like  the  people  of  every 
other  coimtry,  will  accept,  at  the  appointed  hour, 
the  mandates  of  the  unwritten  and  universal  law. 
The  characteristic  feature  of  the  new  dispensa- 
tion will  be  whatever  the  dominant  European 
forces  impose ;  that  will  be  transmitted  and  trans- 
fused into  us.    It  is  not  a  question  of  being  con- 
quered.   The  new  era  will  not  conquer  in  the  old 
way.    It  will  come  with  the  impulsion  of  a  rising 
tide,   which   gradually  overwhelms,   submerges, 
transforms.    There  will  be  no  second  edition  of 
the  Elizabethan  or  the  Victorian  era.     Condi- 
tions will  change  to  such  a  degree  that  in  nothing 
will  the  coming  dispensation  resemble  anything 
in  the  old.    Sects,  parties,  and  individuals  will  be 
swept  along  with  the  tidal  wave  of  Continental 
transformation,    and   imperative   necessity   will 
place  a  dominant  yoke  on  the  old  characteristics 
of  habit  and  opinion.    Men  will  cease  to  say  "I 
believe."    They  will  bow  before  the  inexorable. 
The  nation  will  be  drawn  by  superior  material 


234   THE  INVINCIBLE  ALLIANCE 

forces  or  driven  by  crushing  material  forces. 
The  imperative  will  rule.  Peremptory  mandates 
wdll  not  leave  a  niche  for  the  lodgment  of  the 
sentimental  and  the  vainglorious.  We  shall  no 
longer  resemble  men  who  are  living  on  the  inter- 
est of  their  capital,  not  being  permitted  to  live 
bolstered  up  on  the  illusions  produced  by  past 
glory. 

In  the  coming  dispensation  there  will  be  no 
place  for  the  old  illusions,  science  having  filled 
their  place  with  ine\dtable  fact.    The  awakening 
will  be  more  bewildering  than  that  of  optimistic 
France  in  1870.    MilUons  will  rub  their  eyes  and 
ask  questions  no  one  will  have  the  time  to  answer. 
Utopists  with  sentimental  schemes  for  the  millen- 
nium by  Act  of  Parhament  will  find  themselves 
swept  off  their  feet  by  the  tidal  wave  of  action, 
in  which  words,  opinions,  personal  likes  and  per- 
sonal idiosyncrasies  will  have  neither  weight  nor 
meaning.     For  the  first  time  since  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Eighth  authority  will  dominate  both 
the  masses  and  the  classes,  and  under  such  a 
regime  a  duke  will  have  no  more  influence  than  a 
smart  soldier  of  the  ranks.    The  question  will  be 
not  "Who  are  you?  "  but  "  What  do  you  know? " 
A  few  iron-willed  men  will  assume  control,  and 
their  judgment  will  become  law.    Necessity  and 


THE   NEW   ERA  235 

action  will  absorb  parties  as  a  sponge  absorbs 
water. 

The  new  dispensation  will  be  a  forcing  time, 
not  only  for  grains  and  fruits,  but  for  indi\dduals. 
It  will  be  an  age  of  applied  science,  but  out  of 
science  a  new  spiritual  element  will  spring  forth, 
which  in  turn  will  dominate  the  material.  The 
new  era  will  bring  -^dth  it  a  spiritual  renaissance 
and  the  unity  of  the  Anglo-American  people. 


lSlli&!?F.?i'^^'^L''RR'-B/FA 


CILITY 


'^A    000  602  975 


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